Virginia Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Blog

Who Pays for Damages When You Are Hit By An Illegal Immigrant Who Is Drunk?

A tragic accident in Prince William that killed a Catholic nun has caused many people to wonder who pays when a drunk driver is an illegal immigrant. Read this blog to find out and order a copy of Ben Glass’s free book, Buying Car Insurance in Virginia.

15 Years for Drunk Driving Death and Not a Penny to Pay for The Restaurant who Helped Kill

A local Fairfax Circuit court has sentenced a drunk driver who consumed 12 beers then killed a father of five to 15 years in prison. The family of Robert L. Thomas, however, will have no recourse against the restaurant who (must have) knowingly overserved the criminal, Alfredo Martinez Rivera. Fairfax attorney Ben Glass explains why here.

Another Good Reason to Have High Uninsured Motorist Limits

Think this guy was driving around "fully insured" and able to compensate his victims?

A man who has already served a full sentence for an accident which left a Chesapeake woman with severe personal injuries five years ago because he was “hotdoggin” drunk on a motorcycle will be heading back to prison.

On Monday, April 28 Chief Circuit Court Judge Mark Davis sentenced Joshua Bristol to spend five years in prison for maiming and another year for drunk driving. Two years and six months of the sentence for maiming were suspended provided that Bristol successfully completes two years of supervised released.

On July 4, 2003, Bristol struck April Mapp-Sawyer outside of Three Cheers restaurant and lounge in the parking lot in Cradock.

Mapp, who is unable to remember the incident, received severe personal injuries and has been unable to return to work since the accident.

Bristol first received a conviction for the charges in 2004, but appealed. The conviction was overturned by the Virginia Supreme Court in November 2006 because the court ruled that blood test analysis should not have been admitted as evidence because he was not officially placed under arrest when he consented to the test.

Bristol had already served his sentence of the first convictions when the high court gave its ruling.Prosecutors in Portsmouth decided to bring back the charges and Bristol was convicted again of the same charges in March.

Teaching Point from Attorney Ben Glass:

Dirtbags can legally drive in Virginia without insurance. It's one of those wacky things that go on here. Even if he bought insurance, he probably bought the minimum.

You can buy up to a million dollars of uninsured coverage from most car insurance companies.

They don't want you to know about it and they certainly don't (most of them) want to sell too many of those policies.

Why?

Because when they sell you a policy like that they are really insuring the dirtbag.

Not a good deal for them.

Three Year Sentence for Drunk Driver

Fairfax Judge Jane Marum Rousch sentenced Chrisopher Plaiser to three years in prison for a drunk driving accident that resulted in the death of one passenger and a severe brain injury to another.

Presumably Plaiser is also subject to a civil lawsuit seeking punitive damages under Virginia's punitive damages for drunk drivers statute.

This Florida Drunk Driving Verdict is Just Nuts

Some verdicts are just nuts (sorry to some of my friends who don't think plaintiff's lawyers should criticize any verdict.)

The case is tragic but the verdict is crazy.

In Florida, two drunk kids get into a car and the car crashes into a tree. One teenager dies and the other is paralyzed.

According to court documents, Archbishop Coleman Carroll High School was partially negligent in the accident that killed Michael Sánchez-Agramonte and left Gabriel Maynoldi in a wheelchair.

The sue everyone, including their private high school, whose faculty knew about the party and didn't alert police.

They also sued a bunch of other people, including the person who bought the alcohol.

Let me understand this... they voluntarily drank..they voluntarily broke the law...they voluntarily got into a car and crashed it into a tree.

Tragic...but they didn't hurt anyone but themselves.

Verdicts like this (and its not the jury's fault, apparently Florida has some very liberal laws) hurt everyone because they make a great story for tort reformers to tell to condem us all.

This case would never have seen the light of day in Virginia. Our laws are tough on drunks and on the folks who get into the cars with drunks. There would be zero liability to a school who knew about the party in advance and even zero liability for the person who bought the alcohol because the kids voluntarily drank it.