Leesburg and Fairfax injury lawyer Doug Landau regularly reads about large verdicts from other states, such as New York. Clients often ask why their case does not get multi-million dollar verdicts. They also ask why their cases are so much harder to try in jurisdictions like Virginia. While I congratulate the plaintiff’s lawyer in the subway train case, there are critical differences in the laws of New York City and Virginia. My friend and fellow AAJ member Gary Pillersdorf did a magnificent job to get such a result. However, the jury found his client was 30% to blame for the accident. Despite his client’s “contributory negligence,” the case still went to the jury. According to the New York Times, in March, the jury awarded Pillersdorf’s client $7 million after a subway train struck him when he stumbled onto the tracks in 2002. In New York, the verdicts may be higher, but it takes a lot longer to get a personal injury lawsuit to trial. In this subway accident case, the plaintiff’s right leg had to be amputated, and he also lost an eye. In the New York City subway case, the jury found the injured plaintiff to be 30 percent culpable. In Virginia, if the injured person is even 1% culpable (or “contributorily negligent”), then they can recover nothing. In other words, according to Leesburg and Fairfax crash injury lawyer, if a Virginia jury finds the plaintiff even 1% at fault for causing the accident, even if the Defendant is 99% to blame, they will return their verdict for the Defendant driver
