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Automobile insurance laws in Virginia require the owner of a vehicle to have a certain amount of liability insurance on the vehicle.

In 2010, there were nearly 5.5 million police-reported traffic crashes, in which 32,885 people were killed and 2.25 million people were injured.

When a lawsuit is brought for damages caused by an accident, the judge or jury must decide who caused the accident, since more than one person may have been negligent, including the person who is bringing the lawsuit.

The most common tort — and the one most difficult to define — is negligence. Negligence is defined as the failure to use reasonable due care to avoid foreseeable harm to a person, place, or thing.

The term compensatory damages derives from the word "compensate," meaning "to make up for" or "to make whole." Generally, these damages can be broken up into two sub-categories — actual damages and general damages.

The most significant issue to most people involved in a personal injury claim is the issue of damages. Obtaining fair and just compensation for injuries you have sustained is the primary concern at Schilling & Esposito. By using our experience and the extensive resources available to us on your behalf, we focus on achieving the highest possible monetary recovery for you.

It stands to reason that the most important factor which will affect the amount of damages that you can recover is the nature of the injury sustained. The more serious an injury is, the higher the value of the claim.

You are entitled to compensation if your injuries prevent you from working, thereby causing you to lose income. For example, if you are a landscaper who can't work for a week because you sprained an ankle in an accident, you are entitled to compensation for that week of lost wages. You are also entitled to lost wages if you miss work because of treatment.

There is no simple, universal formula that lets us put a price tag on injury, pain, and suffering. Rather, at Schilling & Esposito we rely on our experience in handling injury cases of all kinds to enable us to form an expectation as to what your case might be worth. This experience is crucial in order to ensure that your case will not be settled out of court for less than it is worth in court.

If you have suffered a work-related injury or illness, you should be able to obtain benefits through your employer’s workers’ compensation policy. Most companies in Virginia are required to carry this type of insurance, and this is generally the first place a worker should go to receive compensation.