“I was biking on my university campus in the bike lane around 6 p.m. heading to a dinner and traffic was backed up bumper to bumper. As I was biking down the bike lane, a car cut into the bike lane and hit me, and I was thrown off my bike and suffered several severe injuries.
I decided to retain Rick Shapiro after meeting with him virtually. My father is a professor and we have a friend who is an attorney. And that attorney did research on quality Virginia personal injury lawyers. And he contacted Rick Shapiro himself and interviewed him and then recommended him to us. And we hired him after meeting him.
On our first call together, Rick Shapiro took great care to get to know me as a person and get the details of the case and of the incident. He was very thorough and walked me through the timeline of what happened and then allowed me room to ask follow-up questions. It was a really helpful interview.
Mr. Shapiro’s firm conducted a very thorough investigation. They obtained the police dash cam and body cam that recorded me after the accident in an ambulance. They were able to take photos from that dash cam and really took the time to watch it over and over and listen to the cam to support my case.
As Mr. Shapiro and his team studied the policeman’s video, and transcribed all of it, they noticed something really critical for my case where the driver said I never saw her referring to myself. And he said, I didn’t even know there was a bike lane there.
And this became really key because later in the case, when the driver got deposed, he changed the story entirely and said that he saw me over 100 or so feet away, a significant distance away, and he blamed me for causing the entire collision.
So he directly contradicted what he said in the cam. And this is something that we needed to highlight, and the law firm caught it immediately. Mr. Shapiro took time to prepare me for a deposition. We had multiple phone calls. He emailed me with questions to help prepare me and made himself available. Should I have any other questions about the case I was able to contact him via text, via call. So he was really in it with me the whole time.
My case was particularly complicated because I had surgery in Pennsylvania. So I was treated in different states, but the law firm went to great lengths to collect medical evidence of my injuries.
They took depositions by Zoom of my surgeons and doctors in different states. They tracked them down even though they had switched to hospitals. They also created medical illustrations, visuals essentially of a plate in my foot post-surgery that was the most prominent visual effect of that.
Mr. Shapiro and I did go to a court settlement conference. We had evidence that the driver was responsible. Mr. Shapiro’s firm prepared fully for a court trial. They prepped me, they collected evidence. He created a really helpful PowerPoint with the visuals of my case. We really pressed the defendant with this mounting evidence, and they upped their offers substantially. The case did end up settling and I’m really thankful for that.
With every step in the settlement process, Mr. Shapiro kept me informed. He texted me with every update. He’d called me regularly. I never felt like I had to reach out to him because he kept me so much in the loop and deferred to me with ultimate decisions. And he really helped me think through the big questions and weigh these weighty decisions while still respecting what I had to say.
One thing that really stood out to me about working with Mr. Shapiro was the way he handled the court settlement case in particular. He handled everybody with respect, even when there was tension in the room. He knows when to react respectfully, but he knows when to hold his ground in a very professional manner. So he can communicate professionally while still getting his point across.
If given the opportunity, I would definitely recommend working with Mr. Shapiro and his law firm for anyone who suffers a serious injury.”
Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp is a personal injury law firm dedicated to serving the communities of Virginia and North Carolina. As a firm, we are passionate about helping injured clients recover maximum compensation and are committed to excellence, diversity, inclusion, and equal rights for all. Whether you need an attorney after a car accident, a medical malpractice case, or wrongful death, we can help. Call Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp today at 833-997-1774 for a free consultation to discuss your case and explore your legal options.