Verdicts & Settlements

RESULTS: $282,000 Settlement

DATE: May 2026

ATTORNEY: Kevin D. Sharp

PARALEGAL: Beth C.

COURT: (Pre-suit) Albemarle County/Charlottesville, Virginia

WHAT HAPPENED:

Our client was riding as a passenger in a vehicle driven by his friend, who was intoxicated. The vehicle was northbound on Rio Road East near the intersection of Hillsdale Drive, just north of Charlottesville, Virginia, when the driver lost control of the vehicle and struck two other vehicles and a guardrail. Our client was tragically killed in the accident, and the driver of his vehicle was charged with involuntary manslaughter as a criminal offense, which is separate from potential liability under civil negligence and wrongful death statutes.

KEY LEGAL STRATEGIES:

Virginia is one of four jurisdictions in the United States that has a terrible antiquated law called the bar of contributory negligence, or “contributory negligence bar.” The bar means that if an injured person, or even a person who is killed, like in this case, contributes in any material way to causing their injury, they are not allowed to recover in Virginia whatsoever. In other words, their claim is barred due to contributory negligence/fault.

This terrible, unfair rule that originated in 1800s Great Britain has been abolished there, where it was first enunciated as a rule of law. However, although 46 states in the country have abolished it in favor of comparative negligence, meaning a claim is reduced by the injured person’s percentage of negligence, Virginia still follows the old rule.

What this means for Virginia personal injury attorneys who are experienced in handling these cases is that it requires an analysis of whether the responsible party could argue that there still is some contributory fault on the injured person or the person who has died in the incident. Here, the driver was intoxicated, and the insurance company’s lawyer for the main responsible party, who was intoxicated, could argue that the passenger knowingly entered the vehicle with an intoxicated person. Because our client tragically died in the crash, no one could interview him to ask him if he was aware of the intoxication level of his own driver, and this unfortunate tragic circumstance meant that the insurance company would have some difficulty in attempting to prove that our passenger knowingly got in the front seat with a drunk driver.

When the negligence of another causes the death of a person, such as in a car crash, the civil claim for injuries prior to death in Virginia is called a survival action. The claim for the wrongful death of a person caused by another person’s negligence is a claim under the wrongful death statutes of Virginia. The insurance companies were aware that we either had a survival or a wrongful death claim on behalf of the passenger who tragically passed away as a result of the intoxicated driver’s actions.

One key legal strategy was to advise the adverse insurance company that they would not be able to prove contributory fault on the passenger we represented, who died in this crash.

Another legal strategy was to locate and demand all available insurance policies. In a case like this, there may be inadequate insurance for the intoxicated driver, or there may be no insurance available to that driver. That is where a skilled Virginia personal injury attorney can investigate whether uninsured or underinsured insurance policies may apply to the circumstances of a wreck.

In fact, we were able to access the underinsured motorist insurance policy available to our client and his estate (his surviving family) through his own insurance. We also determined that not only should his own insurance pay “underinsurance benefits,” but his father’s car underinsured motorist policy also applied to him because he was a resident relative under his father’s policy with a separate insurance company.

While the amount recovered could never replace the family’s vast loss, we were able to combine three separate insurance sources to maximize the recovery.  We find that, at times, our clients are hesitant to claim underinsured motorist benefits under their own or a family member’s policy, believing that will instantly raise their premiums or insurance rates. This is a false belief because Virginia law provides that no insurance company may raise premiums based on a claim that is not wholly or partly the claimant’s fault.

RESULTS: $282,000 (the combined recoveries from three separate insurance policies)