Virginia Personal Injury Lawyers

You hire an attorney to provide quality legal and practical advice regarding your case. If you hire the right attorney, someone that understands the process, then you can rely on their information and advice. The attorney must communicate with the client and the client needs to communicate their concerns with the attorney. The client should have all their answers answered then listen and follow their attorney’s advice. The Richmond personal injury attorney represents the client’s interest. The insurance company represents the interest of the defendant.

About the Author:  Damon Pendleton is a personal injury attorney serving Central Virginia including Northern Virginia, Richmond and the surrounding counties, Southside Virginia and the Tidewater/Hampton Roads area.

Prior to graduating from law school, Damon worked five years as a claims adjuster for one of the largest insurance companies in America. Here, Damon settled hundreds, if not thousands, of cases on behalf of the insurance company. (What many don’t understand about the insurance company is that claims adjusters determine the value of cases. Even when the insurance company hires an attorney to represent the defendant, that defense attorney must ask the claims adjuster for the money to settle the case). Damon saw too many injured victims not getting what they deserved. The insurance company preyed on their weaknesses. This experience led him to attend law school.

While attending law school Damon served as law clerk for the Honorable Judge Mary Terrell Gooden, Washington D.C. Superior Court. He also served as law clerk for the Virginia Office of the Attorney General-Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and as law clerk for the renowned personal injury firm, Pulley, Watson, King, and Lischer in Durham, NC. Following graduation he worked in litigation support at the United States Department of Justice on cases valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Damon relocated to Richmond, Virginia where he handled injury cases for one of the fastest growing personal injury firms in Central Virginia.

Damon is a member of the Virginia State Bar, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Association for Justice. Most recently Damon became a best-selling author for his work on the consumer advocacy book, “Protect and Defend”. If you have been involved in an accident and want to discuss your case or just need some advice, he can be reached at 804-250-5050.

In injury cases the victim’s life has been turned upside down and understandably, the last thing you want to think of is documenting a claim. But, it is best if the victim, a close friend, or family member, documents the injury claim as best as they can.

Documentation includes everything from the beginning to the end of the accident. If you are able, take your own photos of the vehicle at the scene of the accident. Write down the witnesses’ contact information at the scene. Save the discharge paperwork from the hospital. Keep a record of all medical providers. I suggest my clients keep a notebook to write down their thoughts and feeling during the entire period. This helps refresh their recollection months later if it becomes necessary.

Remember that often it is not uncommon for defendants to appear apologetic at the scene of an incident. But, time has a funny way of working on people’s recollection of events. Sometimes unscrupulous defendants will change their stories after given a few days to think about it and consult with others. Again, claims adjusters are paid to find holes in your story and grounds for refusing to pay your claim. This is why the law firm must perform its own investigation of the case. The client can help by saving all pertinent information about their claim. Whether your case is resolved by a settlement or a jury verdict, the insurance company or court will require that you prove all of your damages.

The victim and their loved ones know better than anyone how much they lost as a result of their injury. The victim’s attorney must know better than anyone else how to communicate his client’s losses in such a way to recover the best settlement or verdict from the defendant’s insurance company. That is not meant to be cold, this is the fact made necessary by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Courts compensate injury victims by awarding money for their damages. This age old system has proved to be the best way in attempting to make the victim whole again and deter the negligent behavior from the responsible companies and individuals so they will not do the same careless acts again. It’s far from perfect, but this is the system we have until the laws change.

After resolving hundreds of cases, I can say that no two cases are exactly the same. Many cases are similar with seemingly minor differences which can make a big difference in their value. Some variables that go into determining a value range of your case include: (1) the defendant’s conduct; (2) witnesses; (3) severity of injuries; (4) any permanent injury or scarring; (5) jurisdiction; (6) length of treatment; (7) types of medical treatment; (8) cost of treatment; (9) types of treatment; (10) gender and (11) jurisdiction.

This serves as only a list of starters which is why no attorney can intelligently answer the question, “what’s my case worth?”, without getting other questions of surrounding facts and circumstances answered first. If you pose this question to the Claim’s Adjuster they will likely give you a low-ball offer that they give every person in your shoes. But, since you are educating yourself you will know that low-ball offers are for people that aren’t serious about getting the fair value of their case.

As a general rule Virginia law gives accident victims two years from the date of injury to file suit in their case (this can change depending on circumstances which is why it’s important to speak directly to an attorney about the specifics of your case). During this period it’s not uncommon for the victim to be out of work due to the injuries and have unpaid medical bills. Many people don’t have short-term disability insurance or other means to cover expenses during this period of time.

The defendant’s insurance company is keenly aware of these facts and they use it to their advantage. Insurance companies prey on accident victims who need the money. That means offering the victim less than the full-value of their case if they settle today or not offering anything until right before the case is scheduled for trial.

Frequently, there is a direct relationship between the recovery of a case and how much the family needs the money. If the insurance company senses desperation from the victim, they will pounce on it like a tiger on prey. But when the victim can take the time to heal, and let the attorney do his job in developing a strong case, then the insurance company inevitably takes notice, and as the trial deadlines pass the offers on your quality case increase accordingly.

The other side of the coin is when the insurance company tries to get you to settle for a low-ball offer immediately or get you to give a statement immediately. Some even threat to “close their file” if you fail to cooperate. This is all just double-talk meant to pressure you into behavior that is against your interest. Stand strong beside an attorney that understands the games these people play. Then, when they know you are serious about your case, they normally will eventually present a serious offer.

Two of the first questions I get from new clients are, “who pays my medical bills?” and “who will pay for my car?” Prior to working for an insurance company I probably didn’t understand how it all worked together either. So don’t feel bad. I purchased insurance at the most competitive price and didn’t think about the rest unless I needed to make a claim.

Obviously, purchasing insurance doesn’t make anyone an expert on how the coverage works. But, without a thorough understanding of coverage it’s impossible to know what benefits you are entitled to. Medical expense coverage, bodily injury, uninsured motorist, underinsured motorist coverage, and short-term and long-term disability insurance are some of the types of insurance coverage that can affect your life before and after resolving your injury claim. That is why you must either take the time to learn how all the coverage works or use the resources available to you to make sure you get everything the insurance companies owe you. Claims adjusters job is to protect their insured (See Rule #1). That doesn’t include explaining to you everything that you are entitled to receive.

You can never lie, or even “stretch the truth,” even unintentionally, to your attorney in your personal injury case. Trust that the defendant’s insurance company will find out about anything you fail to tell your attorney. All of your medical records can eventually be presented as evidence and insurance companies have an indexing system which will tell them whether the injury victim was ever involved in a prior accident. Insurance companies will employ investigators to provide surveillance of your home and work. Request may be made to review your Facebook account, or other social medias sites, if you have one.

Insurance companies go through great lengths to show that your injury could have come from anything other than the defendant’s negligent conduct. The easiest way to deal with this issue is to be honest with your attorney. Your attorney will guide you through this minefield so that nothing else is discovered that could hurt your case down the line. When discrepancies are discovered is when you lose all credibility.

Now, while you must be honest with your attorney you cannot expect the defendant’s insurance company to take your 100% honest answer and use it in your favor (see rule #7). It’s been mentioned-this is an adversarial process! That is why it’s important to hire an attorney that knows how to present information that is negative to your case in the most favorable light possible. Then he needs to explain any prior injuries or pre-existing injuries. When this is done correctly it will have a minimal impact, if any, on your ultimate recovery in an injury case. Claims adjusters won’t tell you but they only look for how anything in your past could be the reason for your current problems (as opposed to their client that ran into you!).

By far the biggest mistake Virginia injury victims make after their accident is believing that the defendant’s insurance company exist to help them file a claim (Note: the defendant is the person that is at fault for the accident). This couldn’t be further from the truth. The defendant’s insurance company operates to protect the defendant!

The insurance company representative, normally a claims adjustor, may be nice on the phone or sweet when they come to your home. The adjuster may even be a nice guy or gal away from work. But the reality is that their job is to protect the interest of their insured, the defendant, and to settle the claims they owe for the lowest amount possible.

A good statistic to remember is that a typical claims adjuster may handle several hundred claims a year. Chances are that a typical injury victim may have one or two cases in a lifetime. Who do you think has the upper-hand in a negotiation between those two people? This is important because behind that cordial phone call you receive is a claims adjuster trained to pull information out of you that could give them grounds to deny your claim. That’s the truth.I know because I was trained by the best Big Insurance Company in the business.

Many things go through accident victims’ minds. Different people have different concerns. Common issues I hear from my clients include: How will I get back pay from when I had to miss work because of my injury? Who will cover the property damage to my car? How will I get medical treatment now? Whose insurance should pay for my medical bills?

Far too many clients come to me after giving a recorded statement to the defendant’s insurance company. This is never a good thing and anyone involved in an injury claim should contact our office before speaking to the defendant’s insurance company.

During the days and weeks following an accident victims are often at their most vulnerable. This is why insurance companies will attempt to contact accident victims as soon as possible following an accident. You must understand from the beginning that the injured victim and the defendant’s insurance company are adversaries, NOT friends!

This bears repeating: The defendant’s insurance company is NOT your friend!

I spent 5 years as a claims adjuster for one of the largest insurance companies in the country. At that time the company required that the claims adjuster call all victims within 1 hour of the claim being reported. If we determined that our policyholder was responsible for the accident we were trained to settle cases immediately with the victim for as small an amount as possible. That’s the job of the defendant’s insurance company-to protect the defendant and settle the claims they owe for the lowest amount possible (the money saved on paying claims go the stockholders-now do you understand why they aren’t motivated to pay even legitimate claims).