DOMESTIC RELATIONS/FAMILY LAW

Significant emotional turmoil and financial cost are often encountered in family law disputes.  Because of this, it is important to have an attorney who has the experience to effectively and efficiently litigate your case and to counsel you through your decisions. I offer these abilities.   I help people in the areas listed below.

I know how important and disruptive these cases are and therefore I can meet with you after business hours or on weekends, with absolute confidentiality.

GENERAL CIVIL LITIGATION

I am an experienced trial attorney, comfortable in a courtroom before either a judge or jury in various types of litigation and I have been listed on numerous occasions as one of the top civil litigators in Virginia by the Virginia Business magazine in its yearly “Legal Elite” issue.  I am licensed in Virginia and North Carolina.  My trial experience includes will contests, real estate suits, contract disputes, employment disputes, personal injury actions, and product liability actions.  My clients have included individuals, businesses of various sizes, institutional clients, estates, and corporations. I work to find practical solutions to disputes through participation in alternate dispute resolution, negotiated settlements, and pre-trial motions so as to avoid costly trials and to decrease disruption of your business or personal life.

GENERAL PRACTICE

With over 15 years of varied experience I am also available to counsel and represent individuals and businesses in regards to a variety of other legal issues including drafting and reviewing documents and appearing before boards, councils, and commissions. Please feel free to call me if you have a question, regardless of whether the particular field is listed here.  This web site in no way sets out the only areas of practice where I can help people.

INSURANCE DEFENSE

For the last 15 years I have devoted significant time to the defense of insurance companies and their insureds. It has been my privilege to represent the insureds of a number of insurance companies and to continue to receive assignments from them.  In addition to having successfully tried defense suits to juries, I have experience with and can assist insurance companies with accident investigation, examinations under oath, and coverage opinions.  I understand and respect the tripartite relationship that exists between the insurance company, its insured, and me.   I honor those duties by not using insurance defense work as training work for associates.   I also appreciate and am adept at the reporting and billing requirements that are critical to the insurance industry.   I have timekeeping software that can confirm the accuracy of my timesheets on a real-time basis and I have billing software that provides invoices within days of the close of the billing period.  My colleagues’ evaluations of my work and my ethical abilities has led Martindale-Hubbell to award me its B-V rating.  

PERSONAL INJURY

While most personal injuries happen in motor vehicle wrecks, such as car, truck, motorcycle, or motor boat wrecks, I represent people who have been hurt, not only in such wrecks caused by negligent drivers but also by defective products, or by the negligence of land owners.  If you have been hurt by someone else’s negligence, then I can assist you in recovering for your injuries, pain and suffering, doctors’ bills, and lost wages.   In addition to trials, I can pursue other methods of recovery, such as mediation, negotiation, or arbitration to settle a case out of court. However, if those other methods prove unsuccessful and a trial is required, then my extensive trial experience should serve you well. In personal injury or wrongful death cases my first meeting with you is free and I only charge a legal fee if you obtain a recovery.

TRAFFIC AND DUI CASES

Few things are more disruptive than losing your license to drive.  I have been successfully defending people charged with traffic offenses or drinking and driving charges for 15 years.   I offer flat fees so that you have a better sense of what your total expenses will be.

CONSTRUCTION

Regardless of what's being built or who is building it, most construction disputes become a "battle of forms" where knowledge and experience is key.  I have represented owners, builders, and contractors in litigation and in addition I can assist with the the many challenges that occur during the contracting, construction, and conclusion of many types of projects in this practice area. 

EMPLOYMENT

On a yearly basis, area business owners are ushered through seminars intended to scare them into revising all of their operating procedures. I have counseled individuals and businesses, large and small, regarding employment issues including and involving employee handbooks, wage and hour issues, hiring and firing issues and other issues.  I welcome the opportunity to assist you in finding a creative solution to your employment issues without the expense of revising all of your other policies.