Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer - Head & Brain Injuries - Most Commented

Virginia Doctor Injured After Being Chased on Bike by Dog

Ben Glass — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:15:00 GMT

On June 23, a 59-year-old Fairfax physician sustained serious personal injuries after a dog chased after his bicycle and attempted to grab the back wheel. The man was caused to be launched over the handlebars of his bike and land on his face when he attempted to kick the dog away with his right leg, according to Washington County Deputy Erik Hinchey.

Hinchey said that police have not named the man due to difficulties locating his children. Because of the incident, the man sustained two broken eye sockets, a broken nose, and cranial bleeding. He was placed in intensive care at Bristol Regional Medical Center and Hinchey says possible brain damage is a concern.

The physician and his wife traveled to Bristol in order to join over 1,800 cyclists who participated in Bike Virginia , a week long bike tour which draws cyclists from all across the country for a yearly biking vacation.

Hinchey says that the owner of the German shepherd-mix which chased the physician was cited for having an unleashed dog. She is due in court in August and will face fines of up to $375. The owner may also face civil liability if leash laws were violated.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

20 Year Wati for Lead Poisoning Justice

Ben Glass — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:26:04 GMT

Congratulations to our friend and lead poisoning litigation expert, Richard Serpe.
On October 14th, 2007 Serpe a jury awarded one of his lead poisoning victims a $1,500,000 verdict.

Chauncey Freeman was poisoned as a two year old, but it was not until he was almost 20 years old that he sought out Serpe to pursue the idea of a claim. The case was filed just before Chauncey's 20th birthday, and the verdict came in almost exactly 20 years after he was poisoned.

This is only the second verdict in that State of Virginia for a lead poisoning victim, and a superb result. The first verdict was also one of Serpe's cases.

According to Serpe, the testing of the lead paint on the property found only two samples that were over the Building Code's definition of lead-based paint. There was only ONE blood test result for Chauncey, so there was no proof of chronic exposure to lead paint. Furthermore, although the health department did an inspection for lead in 1986, NO copy of the inspection report was provided to the landlords, who had no idea that there was lead paint, or a lead poisoned child, on the property.

The defendants in Richard's case were retired master chiefs in the Navy who owned the property for only about 10 months before deciding to get out of the landlord business. They did not know anything about the lead problem until they were served with the lawsuit almost 20 years after they had sold the property.
At trial the jury accepted that ADHD, IQ loss, learning disability and behavioral problems to childhood lead poisoning.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Head and Brain Injury.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass

$3.5 Million Malpractice Verdict Upheld

Ben Glass — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:27:00 GMT

Congratulations to Mic McConnell and Jason Konvicka of the Allen Law Firm in Virginia for their win in the Supreme Court of Virginia back in September. Their client suffered a brain injury during gastric bypass surgery. Even though Virginia's insurance company protecting "cap" on malpractice awards immediately knocked the verdict down to $1.65 million (for no reason other than the insurance industry spends big money in Virginia's General Assembly) the defendants elected to appeal the verdict.

About one year after the trial, Mic and Jason prevailed.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Head and Brain Injury.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Ben Glass