Virginia Beach Car Accident Lawyer

Virginia Beach sees thousands of crashes each year. Some happen on I-264 during rush hour. Others occur at intersections along Virginia Beach Boulevard or on Shore Drive. The locations vary, but the aftermath is often the same: injuries that require medical treatment, time away from work, and questions about how to move forward.

Smith Law Center has represented Virginia Beach car accident victims for over 75 years. We handle the legal process so you can focus on recovery. Our firm investigates what happened, documents your losses, and works to secure the compensation you need.

‍Contact us at (757) 244-7000 for a free case review with a Virginia Beach car accident lawyer.

What Our Clients Say

"Attorney Howard Smith and the staff at Smith Law Center are top-notch. I appreciated the concern about my well-being as we went through the process of my case. It was helpful to be kept in the loop and updated on a consistent basis. There were no surprises, and I appreciate the direct manner in which my case was handled. Thank you for making me feel like I mattered."

— Denise T.

Types of Car Accident Cases We Handle in Virginia Beach

The Virginia Highway Safety Office recorded 129,244 crashes statewide in 2024, resulting in 918 deaths and 64,086 injuries. Virginia Beach reported 5,272 crashes during that period, causing 24 fatalities and more than 2,600 injuries.

These crashes leave people dealing with hospital bills, lost paychecks, and the physical challenge of recovering from injuries caused by another driver's mistake.

Our Virginia Beach car accident attorneys represents clients injured in:

• Head-on collisions,
• Side-impact and rear-end crashes,
• Rollover and multi-vehicle accidents,
• Hit-and-run crashes,
• Distracted driving accidents,
• DUI-related collisions, and
• Speeding or reckless driving crashes.

Be Cautious About Giving Recorded Statements

After a car accident, you may receive phone calls from various parties requesting information about what happened. These calls often come quickly, sometimes within hours of the crash, and may catch you off guard while you are still dealing with the immediate aftermath of the accident.

Recorded statements become part of the official record in your case. The questions asked and answers you provide can significantly affect your ability to recover compensation later. Adjusters are trained to ask questions in specific ways, and even truthful answers to seemingly straightforward questions can be misinterpreted or used in ways you did not anticipate.

You are not legally required to give a recorded statement to another driver's insurance company. While you must cooperate with your own insurance company as required by your policy, you should still be careful about what you say and how you say it.

Comments made without fully understanding their legal implications can affect your case. For example, saying "I'm fine" when asked about injuries might seem polite, but it can be used later to argue that you were not seriously hurt. Similarly, saying "I didn't see the other car" might be interpreted as an admission that you were not paying proper attention.

A Virginia Beach car accident lawyer can advise you on what information you need to provide and how to communicate effectively without jeopardizing your claim. In many cases, your attorney can handle these communications entirely, protecting your rights while ensuring that necessary information is properly conveyed.

Injuries We See in Virginia Beach Car Accidents

Car accidents cause injuries that affect victims physically, financially, and emotionally. Common injuries include:

Traumatic Brain Injuries

Head impacts during crashes can cause concussions, skull fractures, and permanent brain damage. TBI symptoms include memory problems, difficulty concentrating, personality changes, and chronic headaches. Severe cases require extensive rehabilitation and may result in permanent disability.

Damage to the Spinal Cord

Spinal cord injuries can result in partial or complete paralysis, loss of sensation, and permanent mobility limitations. These injuries often require surgery, extensive rehabilitation, and lifelong medical care.

Even partial spinal cord injuries that preserve some function often result in significant disabilities requiring extensive rehabilitation, assistive devices, home modifications, and ongoing medical care. The financial cost of spinal cord injuries can reach millions of dollars over a victim's lifetime.

Soft Tissue Injuries Such as Whiplash

Whiplash occurs when the head snaps forward and backward rapidly during rear-end collisions. While some whiplash cases resolve within weeks with conservative treatment, others develop into chronic conditions causing persistent pain, stiffness, headaches, and limited range of motion.

Soft tissue injuries can be difficult to diagnose through standard imaging like X-rays, leading some people to dismiss these injuries as minor, but victims know the daily reality of living with chronic neck pain that affects sleep, work, and quality of life.

Broken Bones and Fractures

Arms, legs, ribs, collarbones, and facial bones commonly break during crashes. Simple fractures may heal with immobilization and time, but complex fractures often require surgical repair using plates, screws, rods, or other hardware to hold bone fragments in proper position during healing.

Recovery involves months of limited mobility, physical therapy to regain strength and function, and often permanent hardware remaining in the body. Some fractures heal improperly despite treatment, resulting in chronic pain, arthritis, or limited function that affects victims for the rest of their lives.

Amputations

Crush injuries or mangled extremities may require surgical amputation when limbs cannot be saved. Victims face not only the immediate trauma but also permanent disability, prosthetic adaptation, and significant lifestyle changes.

Modern prosthetics can restore significant function, but they require ongoing adjustments, replacements, and maintenance. The psychological impact of limb loss, including depression, anxiety, and phantom limb pain, adds another layer of difficulty to recovery.

Burns and Facial Lacerations

Road rash, chemical burns from leaking fluids, and fire-related injuries can cause permanent scarring and require skin grafts. Serious burns damage multiple layers of skin and may extend to underlying tissues, muscles, or bones.

Burn victims frequently develop thick scar tissue that limits mobility and causes chronic pain. Facial burns and scarring affect appearance and self-esteem, sometimes requiring years of reconstructive surgery to address.

Prompt medical care is essential, even if you believe your injuries are minor. Seeing a doctor not only protects your health but also creates documentation that links your condition to the crash.

Car accidents leave victims facing medical bills, lost wages, and insurance companies looking for reasons to pay less. Smith Law Center handles the legal fight while you focus on recovery.

Call (757) 244-7000 or message us for a free case evaluation with a Virginia Beach car accident attorney.

Compensation a Virginia Beach Auto Accident Lawyer Can Help You Recover

Virginia law allows injured accident victims to seek compensation for losses caused by another driver's negligence:

• Medical expenses covering emergency care, hospitalization, surgery, medications, physical therapy, and future treatment.
• Lost wages for income missed during recovery, plus reduced future earning capacity if injuries affect your ability to work.
• Pain and suffering addressing physical discomfort, emotional distress, and diminished quality of life.
• Punitive damages in cases involving particularly reckless conduct like drunk driving. Virginia caps these at $350,000.
• Wrongful death damages when crashes result in fatalities, allowing families to recover funeral costs and compensation for their loss.

Smith Law Center works with medical experts, economists, and vocational specialists to calculate the full scope of your losses, including how injuries will affect your future. Research confirms that accident victims who hire attorneys recover nearly three times more compensation than those handling claims independently.

What to Do After a Car Accident in Virginia Beach

The actions you take immediately after a car accident can significantly affect both your health outcomes and your ability to recover compensation later. Here is what you should do:

• Call 911 for medical help. Request evaluation even if you feel uninjured. Some conditions do not produce immediate symptoms.
• Report the accident to police. Virginia requires reports for crashes involving injury, death, or property damage exceeding $1,500.
• Exchange information. Collect names, contact details, and insurance information from all drivers. Avoid discussing who was at fault.
• Document the scene. Photograph vehicle damage, road conditions, traffic signals, and visible injuries. Get contact information from witnesses.
• Seek medical treatment. Visit an emergency room or urgent care even for seemingly minor injuries.
• Keep all documentation. Save medical bills, repair estimates, prescription receipts, and records of missed work.
• Decline recorded statements without legal advice. Speak with a Virginia Beach car accident attorney before providing detailed information about the accident.
• Avoid social media completely. Posts can be misinterpreted and used against you during the claims process.

How Social Media Impacts Your Case

Social media has become a significant factor in personal injury cases. Posts, photos, videos, comments, and check-ins can all be discovered and used as evidence during the claims process or in court. Even content that seems completely harmless to you may be interpreted differently by others looking for reasons to minimize your claim.

For example, a photo of you standing and smiling at a family gathering might be presented as proof that you are not experiencing the pain and limitations you have described, even though the photo was taken during a brief good moment and says nothing about how you felt before or after. 

A comment about having a good day might be used to contradict testimony about ongoing suffering, even though everyone with chronic injuries has some better days mixed in with worse ones. A check-in at a restaurant or store might be used to argue that you are more active than you have claimed, even though a short outing does not reflect your overall functional capacity.

Trial lawyer David Holt of Smith Law Center has extensive experience with how social media content affects personal injury cases. He explains the risks involved and why caution is essential during the claims process.

The safest approach is avoiding social media entirely while your case is pending. If you choose to maintain accounts, be extremely cautious about what you post, and understand that even private accounts can be accessed through discovery in lawsuits.

Is Virginia a No-Fault State for Car Accidents?

Virginia is not a no-fault state. Instead, Virginia operates under a fault-based system for car accidents, which means the driver who causes the crash is legally responsible for covering injuries and losses resulting from that crash.

This differs from no-fault states where each driver's insurance covers their own injuries regardless of who caused the accident. In no-fault states, drivers typically file claims with their own insurance companies for medical expenses and lost wages, and they can only sue the at-fault driver in limited circumstances involving serious injuries.

Under Virginia's fault-based system, injured victims file claims against the at-fault driver's liability insurance policy. That insurance should pay for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other losses caused by the crash.

If the at-fault driver's insurance is insufficient to cover all losses or if the at-fault driver has no insurance, victims may be able to pursue compensation through their own uninsured motorist or underinsured motorist coverage, if they purchased these optional protections.

Virginia also follows a legal doctrine called pure contributory negligence, which is one of the strictest fault standards in the United States. Under this rule, if you are found to bear any responsibility for causing the accident, even just 1%, you cannot recover any compensation from the other driver.

This harsh standard makes determining fault critically important in Virginia car accident cases. While most states follow comparative negligence rules that simply reduce an injured person's recovery by their percentage of fault, Virginia's all-or-nothing approach means that any fault on your part eliminates your entire claim.

Because of this strict standard, it is important not to admit fault at accident scenes or in conversations with insurance representatives. Even statements that seem innocuous, such as "I didn't see the other car" or "Maybe I could have stopped sooner," can be interpreted as admissions of some responsibility for the crash.

Do not discuss fault before understanding exactly what happened and how Virginia law would apply to the circumstances of your specific crash. What might seem like a minor error on your part may not constitute legal negligence, or the other driver's conduct may have been so clearly the primary cause that contributory negligence does not apply.

Why Choose Smith Law Center's Virginia Beach Car Accident Lawyers?

Smith Law Center has served Virginia Beach car accident victims for over 75 years. Three generations of Smith attorneys have built a practice focused on helping injured people navigate the legal system and recover compensation.

We investigate crashes thoroughly, work with medical professionals to document injuries, and build cases that demonstrate the full extent of what you have lost. Our firm pursues compensation through both settlement negotiations and courtroom trials.

Proven Case Results

Over seven decades of practice, we have recovered over $1 billion in verdicts and settlements for injured clients. Our car accident results include:

• $2 million award for a woman who suffered a head injury in a collision.
• $1.75 million jury verdict for a hair stylist who suffered an arm injury in a car crash.

While past results do not guarantee future outcomes, these cases reflect our commitment to pursuing maximum compensation for our clients.

Contingency Fee Representation

We work on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you. This allows injured victims to pursue valid claims without worrying about upfront legal costs during an already stressful financial period.