The law does not require compensation for every injury. You must prove that someone else was negligent or careless and that it was their negligence or carelessness which caused your injury. If you have suffered an unfortunate accident that is no one else’s fault, or if you do not sue the right person, then the law says that you will not win your case. If you have a preexisting injury the law does not require the person who hit you to pay you except to the extent that your condition was demonstrably worsened because of the accident.

In Virginia there is one more factor that we must prove: You cannot have been at fault in any way for your injury. This is known as the law of Contributory Negligence. This means that if the “other guy” was 99 percent at fault and you were 1 percent at fault, then you cannot recover anything. Sound fair? Hardly! (Again, thank the insurance companies. Virginia is one of only three states in the country that have this silly rule.) Before we accept your case, we must be confident that you were not at fault in any way.