The Strong Law Firm

One of the first things that people who’ve been involved in a construction accident in Virginia often ask me is whether they can file a lawsuit against the employer to recover for general damages from the accident. If you were a wage-earning employee or a wage earner of a subcontractor on a job, it is often the case that you cannot file a general tort claim and seek general damages from your employer or even a general contractor on the job. It is an extremely complicated area of law which requires a careful legal analysis and a careful field investigation into the facts of who was responsible for this Virginia construction accident. In those cases, you must contact an attorney to guide you through the process of finding who you can pursue for a general damages case. Remember again that Virginia Workers’ Compensation cases have a very limited amount that they will pay for in the way of 500 weeks of compensation at two-thirds of your average weekly wage and lifetime medical benefits.

People often ask me, “What’s the best choice for me in finding a personal injury attorney to represent me after a car crash in Virginia?” There are over 14,000 attorneys practicing in this state, so it’s a real hard choice to make between one attorney or another for any given case. In a personal injury case, you can often rely on client reputation. That is what kind of reputation or awards have been received by that attorney, either by past client reviews or industry awards. Certainly the more serious your injuries, the more specialization you need in the attorney that you choose in doing personal injury work, because the case becomes far more complex to present. Always look for experience, client reviews, and awards to make sure that you’re hiring the right attorney for you in your personal injury case in Virginia.

People often come to me for the first time after they’ve been contacted by an insurance company following a Virginia car crash. In those cases they ask, is it really important that I speak to this insurance company, and provide the details they’re asking me about, following my car crash in Virginia? The simple answer to that is, there’s no need to contact the insurance company or respond to their questions at that stage in your case. Usually right after the car crash is when they’re calling and trying to take what they call a recorded statement to verify what happened in the crash. Sounds reasonable enough to most people, but unfortunately, insurance companies have learned a variety of techniques to try to sneak in questions that are designed to find ways to defeat your claim without you even knowing they’re trying to contest the claim, by asking you certain questions in a certain way. For that reason, you need legal advice before you take any kind of recorded statement, in front of an insurance adjuster or by phone, following your Virginia car wreck case.

I’m often asked, “What are the most common mistakes that people might make after their Virginia car crash injury?” The most frequent mistake that I see is not seeking counsel quickly enough after your crash. It’s important to retain counsel quickly in a serious car crash. The more severe the injuries, the quicker you need to hire the attorney, simply to document the case by determining what happened in the accident, recovering black box information from the vehicles or trucks involved in the crash, talking to police officers, finding witnesses, and preserving their testimony. The more severe the accident or the more complex the accident, whether it be a three, four, or five-car collision, you have to get an attorney early. Other mistakes are not following your doctor’s advice for care following the crash. If you don’t take the doctor’s advice and follow the treatment plan, you’re not likely to recover as much as if you had done that, nor are you likely to recover fully as if you had followed that direction. Please, always remember to follow the doctor’s advice.

Many people ask me, when they first come to see me, whether it’s really necessary to have a personal injury attorney in their Virginia auto crash case. I would tell you, first of all, that oftentimes in a smaller case where it’s just a fender bender type crash, that if you see an attorney to get the basics of how to pursue a claim and read thoroughly on the subject, you might be able to handle the case on your own without their assistance, particularly if you have your own coverage for MedPay or PIP to help you pay for your medical expenses no matter how the case goes.

Construction accidents in Virginia are some of the most difficult cases that any person can suffer through in Virginia. The first thing you have to do after you’ve been involved in a construction accident is retain an attorney with experience in this type of an injury claim. The case will depend largely on a quick and thorough investigation into what happened and who was responsible. The only way to do that is to retain an attorney quickly. Even if OSHA is investigating your case or even if the state police become involved because of a serious injury on the job, it is very important that you retain counsel quickly because there may be other parties besides your employer who are partly or fully to blame for the accident, and may be a source of far greater recovery for you than your employer who is of course entitled to the benefits of the very strict Virginia Workers’ Compensation Statutes.

What is most important when you’re involved in a crash on the highway is, number one, to be sure that you and those that you care about, and even the other party that’s involved in the crash with you, are out of harm’s way as quickly as possible. This means get out the car, move to the side of the road. If the car can be moved, make sure it gets moved out of the way into a safe position on the side of the highway. The worse thing that could happen is to have a second crash after your first crash because the cars weren’t safely moved away from the scene. That being said, sometimes it’s safe to leave the cars where they are.