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Practice Areas
- Car Accidents-Virginia/Carolina (and eastern USA)
- Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases
- Virginia/Carolina Traumatic Brain Injuries/Closed Head Injuries
- Wrongful Death Claims-Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington D.C. or Eastern U.S.A.
- Surgical Errors, Nursing Home Negligence, Medical Malpractice Lawyers
- Trucking/Tractor Trailer/Semi Accidents (Virginia/Carolina, eastern USA)
- General Personal Injury Claims We Handle-Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington D.C. or Eastern U.S.A.
HSInjury Blog 
Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases
- Railroads Try New End Run Around FELA Jury Verdicts: Motions For Verdict Offset Due To Railroad Retirement Collateral Source Payments
- Railroad Employee Recovers Confidential Sum for Injuries Suffered in a Lifting Injury
- Two Canadian-Pacific Trains Collide in SE Minnesota
Firm News
- Railroads Try New End Run Around FELA Jury Verdicts: Motions For Verdict Offset Due To Railroad Retirement Collateral Source Payments
- Elderly Stuarts Draft Virginia Man Killed In Train Crash
- Former Shipyard Worker Wins 4.39 Million Asbestos Mesothelioma Cancer Verdict in Virginia
- Railroads Must Protect Bridges and Ditches with Better Markings
- Five Die In South Carolina On Same Stretch of Pleasantburg Drive Railroad Tracks
Library
Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases
Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases
Our ties with the railroad date back to the very founding of the firm. Our founder was Eddie Wilson, who served as a trainman/conductor for the NS/Norfolk and Western Railway Company and a UTU union official before receiving his law degree. His experience on the railroads allowed him to bring unique perspectives to his railroad legal practice, including the safety and wage concerns of those who are in the vital business of keeping the trains moving. We have immense trial experience in railroad worker injury, disease, and death claims (including occupational disorders/diseases such as lung, hearing or repetitive stress injuries as well as asbestos disease/cancer/mesothelioma), train/railroad derailments and wrecks, railroad crossing crashes and Amtrak passenger injuries, and railroad toxic chemical spills. Richard N. Shapiro, one of our attorneys, is the co-author of “Railroad Health & Safety-A Litigator’s Guide,” one of leading treatises on railroad injury law, found in the nation’s law libraries (72 Am. Jur. Trials 1). Also, Richard N. Shapiro and John M. Cooper have both served as officers and the Chairman of the American Association for Justice Railroad Section, the largest group of the nation’s trial attorneys. Our firm has collected and indexed over 1,000 depositions in railroad and similar injury cases, hundreds of specific research files, as well as numerous railroad manuals and videos relating specifically to railroad issues.
Our staff includes attorneys that have been selected by the BLET as designated legal counsel, and our lawyer's are well known authorities in the field of railroad FELA and railroad crossing law--several have been elected officers of the American Association For Justice, Railroad section.
Our investigators provide valuable assistance in many of our cases, and we credit that to the years of rail experience that they bring to the table. Most have had past employment in the railroad industry, and as a result they not only know how to find crucial pertinent information, but they also are able to relate with our railroad clients in ways that simply wouldn’t occur to an investigator with no prior knowledge of railroading.
It has been our privilege to represent trainmen, brakeman/conductors, engineers, carmen, signalmen, maintenance-of-way-workers, as well as their families and friends on railroad cases or even injury cases unrelated to the rail industry. As a result of our efforts, our firm is well known to thousands of railroad workers throughout the southeastern region of the United States.
Should you or a loved one suffer from an injury during the course of your work on the railroad, having an attorney with a unique and thorough understanding of the rail industry can make all the difference. Contact our law offices for a free case assessment today.
Library for Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases:
- Do's & Don'ts if Railroad injury or catastrophe occurs (for spouses):
- How the Federal Employer's Liability Act (FELA) Protects Railroad Workers
Description: How the Federal Employer's Liability Act (FELA) Protects Railroad Workers is explained by experienced railroad injury lawyers. - Remote Control Devices Should Come Under the Locomotive Inspection Act
Description: I was recently working on a F.E.L.A. case where a railroad worker got hurt while wearing a remote control device. - Toxic Chlorine Gas Used in Recent Attack in Iraq is the Same Substance Norfolk Southern Spilled in Graniteville, South Carolina.
Description: When doctors treated the injured after Norfolk Southern had a chemical spill after a train derailment in South Carolina, they did not have much experience seeing chlorine injuries because it does not happen that often. - A GENERAL REVIEW OF ASBESTOS CLAIMS AFFECTING RAILROAD WORKERS
Description: A General Review Of Railroad Worker Suits Against Railroads for asbestos lung diseases, Including Mesothelioma - Repetitive Stress Claims, How Railroad Injury Law Firm Handles These
Description: What Railroads Knew About Repetitive Stress Injuries That You Didn't - Federal Work Safety Information Useful For F.E.L.A. Cases
- Top 10 reasons railroaders and their families should use SCL & A for their automobile accident cases.
Description: Although there are probably more than 10, here are the key reasons that any railroad employee or family member who has a car wreck injury should contact Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis and Appleton, not just any lawyer who claims to do personal injury: - Railroad worker intimidation and FELA injury claims
- What Does the Phrase “Intimidator” Have to Do With Injuries to CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS) & Amtrak Railroad Workers?
Description: The Phrase “Intimidator” and its relationship with Injuries to CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS) & Amtrak Railroad Workers
Frequent Questions for Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases:
What is the FELA (Federal Employer's Liability Act)?
How does the FELA work?
How is the FELA different from, or similar to, workers compensation?
Videos about Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases:
- What Every Railroad Claim Agent Knows, But Will Never Tell You
- F.E.L.A. Claims
- FELA cumulative trauma
- FELA Statute of Limitations
- Information About Asbestos and Mesothelioma
Case Results for Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases:
- Shoulder Injury requiring surgery for Locomotive Engineer - The Jacksonville, Florida State Court jury returned a $978,000.00 verdict in favor of TA against the railroad.
- Locomotive Engineer with Shoulder and Knee Injuries - Several days before court-ordered mediation, the parties arrived at a settlement of $950,000.00.
- Railroad Conductor gets back injury due to fall in ballast depression - The case was settled for $900,000
- Locomotive Engine Fire causes Rail Engineer right arm and wrist surgery - The case was settled at mediation for $700,000.00
- Rail Conductor receives back injuries as a result of Train-Truck Crossing Collision - A $650,000.00 jury verdict. (Note: the jury verdict was twenty times larger than what the insurer offered just before trial).
- Rail yard injury - rotator cuff surgeries on conductor - $600,000
- Knee Injuries and Low Back Injuries to Railroad Engineer - On the morning of trial, the passenger railroad settled with MM for $350,000.00. The case proceeded to jury verdict against the trucking defendant and a $564,000.00 verdict was returned. (Under Virginia law, a credit in favor of the trucking company was then applied, so that MM's gross recovery as to all parties was $564,000.00).
- Heavy lifting injury - ticket agent-clerk - $450,000 settlement (Settlement monies will be used by WG and his family to allow him to retrain for a lighter type of job outside the railroad industry)
- Back and Neck Injuries to Rail Conductor due to Derailment, faulty switch - The case was settled during suit for $370,000.00
- Rail Conductor gets Career Ending Injury due to Bad "Drawhead" - Settled for $367,000.00 before trial.
- Back Injury to rail conductor operating a "derailler" - The case settled for $333,000.00.
- Railroad-Roadway Crossing Accident - Car Passengers Injured - The firm settled the claims against State Farm/driver for $50,000.00 and $29,000.00 and settled the claims against Norfolk Southern for $32,000.00 and $22,000.00. Each settlement was approved under the infant settlement provisions of Virginia law.
- FELA - Confidential Sum
- AMTRAK ENGINEER SETTLES WITH AMTRAK AND CSX OVER DERAILMENT - Amtrak Engineer Settles His Injury Claims With Trucking company, Amtrak and CSX Arising From Amtrak Derailment
- Amtrak Worker Slips on Ice in Richmond, Virginia (VA). Two Knee Surgeries. - Case settled after extensive negotiation with Amtrak about what the claim was worth for approximately $150,000.00.
- Multiple Asbestos-Mesothelioma Cancer Settlements-Railroad companies -
- Railroad Employee Recovers Confidential Sum for Injuries Suffered in a Lifting Injury -
- Railroad Conductor Neck Injury and Surgery from a Motor Vehicle Accident - Confidential Settlement Satisfactory to Client.
Web Resources for Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases:
- National Transportation Safety Board
Description: The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent Federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant accidents in the other modes of transportation -- railroad, highway, marine and pipeline -- and issuing safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents.
- Mesothelioma Treatment
Description: Useful information on treatment options for mesothelioma.
- United Transportation Union
Description: UTU news online.
- Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
Description: Represents railroad engineers and operating employees in the US and Canada.
- American Train Dispatchers Department
Description: The American Train Dispatchers Association participates in most of the programs offered through the Union Privilege Benefits Department, AFL-CIO.
- Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees
Description: Rail Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
- Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
Description: Labor organization representing 10000 railroad signalmen throughout the United States and into Canada. Headquartered in Mount Prospect, Illinois.
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Description: Official Site of the International Brotherhood of Electricl Workers.
- Transportation Communications Union
Description: TCU news online.
- Railroad Retirement Board
Description: U.S. Agency in charge of rail workers pension and social security benefits.
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Quick Contact
Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton, P.C.
1294 Diamond Springs Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23455
Toll Free: (800) 752.0042
Phone: (757) 460-7776
Fax: (757) 460.3428
Case Results
Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases
- Railroad-Roadway Crossing Accident - Car Passengers Injured
- FELA
- AMTRAK ENGINEER SETTLES WITH AMTRAK AND CSX OVER DERAILMENT
- Amtrak Worker Slips on Ice in Richmond, Virginia (VA). Two Knee Surgeries.
- Multiple Asbestos-Mesothelioma Cancer Settlements-Railroad companies
FAQs
Railroad Accidents/FELA, Injury, Occupational injuries/diseases
What is the FELA (Federal Employer's Liability Act)?
How does the FELA work?
How is the FELA different from, or similar to, workers compensation?