Virginia (VA) Personal Injury law firm news

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

Use of global positioning systems increases in criminal and civil injury cases

Posted on Sep 03, 2008

We have written recently about the increasing use of computers in trucking injury cases, as well as car accident cases, because of the common use of the black boxes in vehicles.  Now, trucking companies have added sophisticated onboard computers that not only track the truck's whereabouts, hours in use, speed, and other variables, but can be used by personal injury lawyers to prove that a trucker was speeding or had driven more than the legal hours of service.

 

Global positioning systems are being used in criminal cases as well. Prosecutors in Chicago used a Garmin global positioning system device in a Chevrolet Trailblazer to help prove the murder of family members in a recent criminal murder trial. Here are some of the uses of global positioning system computer data:

 

In a criminal case alleging a rape, a judge ruled that evidence from a global positioning system in the defendant's car could be used against him at trial.

 

In a Pennsylvania trucking case, the trucker's global positioning system caused police to charge him with setting his own home on fire. The GPS system showed his vehicle/big rig was parked about 100 yards from the house in question.

 

The Consumer Electronics Association has estimated that about 20% of American households own a portable global positioning system and almost 10% have vehicles equipped with such systems built into cars or vehicles.

 

The use of new technology tends to find its way in to the courts, and shows itself a year or two behind the technology used by consumers and businesses. I can only predict that GPS technology will have a growing influence in car/truck injury cases that are in litigation. Also, the ability to falsify driver logs will be severely compromised because this computer data is maintained on a hard drive remote from the truck driver’s location. Personal injury lawyers must be vigilant to ensure that they obtain this material and when it mysteriously disappears or cannot be made available, it will likely mean that the data is extremely damaging to a company.

 

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.

 

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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. 

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

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton is a Virginia injury law firm whose attorneys focus on personal injury and accident law and have experience handling truck wreck cases. Check out our truck accident case results and our free consumer guide on what to do if you get involved in an accident with a commercial truck.

We have offices in Virginia Beach and Hampton, VA, but we're ready to come to you anywhere in Virginia, including Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Newport News, VA, if you've been seriously hurt by someone else's carelessness.

Rick Shapiro and James Lewis have been named to the National Million Dollar Advocates Forum since 2009 and included among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Jim and Rick have been named Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law since 2010. Fewer than 5 percent of practicing lawyers receive this honor.

In addition, our VA injury law firm was the first in the commonwealth to join Primerus, a select group of highly ethical and respected law firms, and we have the highest rating of AV from Martindale-Hubbell, a national lawyer ranking organization. The rating indicates we have a reputation for preeminent legal skill.

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