Hampton Roads, Virginia (VA) is a big military region and requires military law knowledge

Virginia (VA) Personal Injury Lawyers
Offices in VA Beach, Hampton & Elizabeth City, NC  

Growing up in Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), I know what a huge presence the military has in our area. Norfolk is home to the largest naval base in the world. Virginia Beach with its Oceana facility is home to tons military aircraft. In our area cities including Hampton, Newport News, Suffolk, Chesapeake, James City County, Poquoson, and Portsmouth, Virginia (VA), there are many military facilities for all branches of the Armed Forces including Navy, Marines, Army, and Air Force. The backbone of the economy of Hampton Roads, Virginia (VA), is based on military related industry and the U.S. Government is one of our largest employers.

As a result of the large presence of military personnel, we at Shapiro, Lewis, and Appleton get the privilege of representing many military families in their personal injury cases. Working in the field of injury and accident litigation for nearly 20 years, I have had the honor of helping many sailors and soldiers deal with the fall out from an automobile wreck as well as other problems like medical malpractice, slip and fall events, and wrongful death claims. My staff and I have a lot of experiencing in working for Navy families, so we know more about how to deal with the medical and legal issues involved in injuries to military personnel, and dependents, than an attorney from an area without the concentration of military families. In fact, my secretary, our receptionist, and one of paralegals are Navy wives.

My law firm and our staff know exactly where to go to get the necessary information to pursue an auto insurance claim for a Navy man or woman arising from a car wreck injury. Getting the records is actually more complicated you might think. If you try to get the records of a personal injury client directly from the military, you won’t be able to do it. It will take forever and they will likely just direct you back to the military personnel themselves. So in these cases you are best off to get the medical records directly from the client who typically keeps his own jacket of military medical records. Then, what you have to do is to take the relevant records and send them back to the government, for the Navy typically Naval Legal Services, and ask them to put a dollar figure on the value of the treatment. What Naval Legal Services will do is to confirm what the appropriate “statement of value” is for the military care that you’re claiming in the automobile accident case. Naval Legal Services will typically send you the Statement of Value for you to use as a kind of dummy bill to present to the insurance company for the at fault driver. Because insurance companies typically deal with medical bills in the civilian sector, they need to have such a number in order to evaluate the car wreck injury case of a Navy person. An unfortunate fact is that the military undervalues the cost of its military treatment compared to what the same treatment would cost in the private sector. Often getting the statement of value can take longer than I would like. However, we have become pretty experienced at knowing how to expedite the process to get the quickest and maximum recovery possible for the client in this situation of an injured sailor.

Another complication of handling an automobile accident case for a military person or their dependent is that you have to pay back the government for the value of the services that were rendered that are being claimed against the insurance company. This is a matter of Federal law and there is no choice about it. Often we can offset the amount that has to be paid back by submitting the statement of value to the client’s own automobile insurance company as part of a medical payments (med pay) claim. We do not charge anything to handle an uncontested medical payments claim as it is relatively easy for us to do so when we are handling the client’s liability claim against the at fault driver. Not everyone has medical payments coverage on their automobile insurance policy. We will check and confirm if the military person does have that on their vehicle. If so, that will help put more money in the client’s pocket at the end of the case.

Knowing how to work with the U.S. Government and Naval Legal Services, or other similar agency in the context of a personal injury case is one of the areas of injury practice we have lots of experience in. Shapiro, Lewis, and Appleton is familiar with how everything is suppose to work to allow us to get the best possible results for our automobile accident clients who happen to be in the Armed Forces.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm is based in Virginia (VA), near the NE North Carolina (NC) border and handles car,truck,railroad, and medical negligence cases and more. Our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono public information service. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY.

How can you identify a top Virginia injury lawyer for your case? Look no further.

Our VA personal injury lawyers have been selected for many accolades.

Two of the attorneys with our Virginia Beach accident injury law firm, James Lewis and Rick Shapiro, have been named the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Two of our VA injury lawyers -- Lewis and Shapiro - have been named to Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury since 2010. In addition, Lewis and Shapiro have been selected for inclusion in the National Million Dollar Advocates Forum since 2009. 

Our VA accident injury law firm was the first in the commonwealth nvited to join Primerus, a select group of highly ethical and respected law firms. Rick Shapiro was named as one of the Top 100 Injury Lawyers in Virginia by the National Trial Lawyers Association.

In October, 2000 our law firm and co-counsel obtained what was then the largest verdict in Virginia's history for an injured person. Our brain damaged client received an initial award of $46 million that rose to $60 million with interest when the defendant abandoned an appeal and agreed to settle. 

Geographical Areas

Our personal injury lawyers handle personal injury cases throughout the eastern USA, and work closely with lawyers in other states on signficant injury cases.

In Virginia, this includes Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Hampton, Newport News, Suffolk, Richmond, Petersburg, Roanoke, Salem, Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Charlottesville, Ashland, Big Stone Gap, and every community on the Eastern Shore, including Accomack, Onancock, Chincoteauge, Wachapreague, and Cape Charles, Bloxom, Eastville, Exmore, Greenbackville, Machipongo, Mappsville, Melfa, Nassawadox, Onley, Tangier, Temperanceville, Wachapreague and Wallops Island.

In West Virginia, we can handle personal injury claims in Bluefield, Beckley, Bridgeport, Charles Town, Charleston, Fairmont, Huntington, Lewisburg, Madison, Martinsburg, Morgantown, Moundsville, Parkersburg, Ripley, Sutton, Weirton, Wheeling and any other town or county.

Injury Lawyers licensed in VA, WV, North Carolina (NC), South Carolina (SC), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC.

 

Virginia Beach, VA Personal Injury Attorneys
Virginia (VA) Personal Injury Lawyers
Specializing in Virginia Wrongful Death & Injury Law