Richard N. Shapiro (Rick) is a personal injury trial attorney, American inventor, and international award-winning fiction author. One of his co-authored legal treatises was published in the American Jurisprudence “Trials” Law Encyclopedia.
A few days after a California commuter train rammed a truck whose driver had abandoned it at a railroad crossing outside Oxnard, California (CA), on February 24, 2015, Insurance Journal published an analysis titled “Replacing Unsafe Train Crossings Deemed too Expensive.” The headline writer exaggera
A worker at Colonna’s Shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia (VA), suffered injuries requiring hospital treatment when the backhoe he was driving got hit by a small Norfolk Southern locomotive. According to WAVY-TV 10, the collision occurred at a marked but uncontrolled grade crossing inside the work…
The statute of limitations for a personal injury claim is two years from the date of the accident in Virginia. See Va. Code § 8.01-243. However, there is a little-known law that can actually be used to bar legitimate claims of injured folks from being filed…
A 17-year-old high school student died, and 12 other schoolchildren suffered serious injuries, when the school bus in which they were riding crashed into a BNSF freight train near the town of Larimore, North Dakota (ND), on the afternoon of January 5, 2015. Although the…
A company that manufacturers a large percentage of highway guardrails used in the United States is facing growing legal pressure to redesign and replace one its most popular products. The safety device in question, known by the brand name ET-Plus and manufactured by Trinity Industries,…
The American Tort Reform Association (“ATRA”) maintained its standing as the least reputable, overtly partisan, and highly deceptive special interest group in the U.S. with its release of an annual report of so-called “judicial hellholes.” Newport News, Virginia made the watch list. I live in…
A major commuter railroad serving Connecticut and the New York City area has been ordered to pay an unfairly disciplined employee nearly $300,000. The ruling, issued on December 16, 2014, by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, includes record punitive damages of $250,000, about…
A traumatic brain injury, commonly referred to as a TBI, occurs when there is a sudden, blunt trauma to the brain. An estimated 2.4 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The leading cause of…
When is the host of a cookout or other gathering of multiple families liable for injuries suffered by a child who is not his or her own? The Virginia Supreme Court clarified this tricky issue of civil law when ruling on October 31, 2014, that…
Unfortunately, many drivers try to save money by having “minimum” car insurance policies. These are policies with coverage limits that would barely cover a routine fender-bender accident. If you get into a serious auto accident and the at-fault driver has this type of auto insurance…
The Virginia Supreme Court on October 31, 2014, issued a ruling that could significantly benefit plaintiffs who file wrongful death claims against corporations operating in the state. The decision came 10 years after the husband of the woman seeking to hold a Haymarket, VA-based lumber…
An unexpected tragedy led to the daylong closure of the main government office building for the Town of South Boston, Virginia (VA), on October 28, 2014. A steel vault door weighing several hundred pounds fell off its hinges and landed on an accounts receivable clerk…
