Virginia Car Accident Claims

Virginia car crash claims we handle

Many Virginia car cases begin on the region's busiest roads: rear-end collisions in stop-and-go traffic on I-66 and I-395, merge and lane-change crashes on the Capital Beltway, and left-turn collisions on Route 1, Route 7, and Route 50. Many more happen a few blocks from home, at intersections where one driver was looking at a phone.

• Rear-end collisions, including low-speed impacts that cause lasting neck, back, and brain injuries
• Distracted-driving crashes involving phones, screens, and navigation devices
• Crashes caused by drunk or drugged drivers, where Virginia allows a separate claim for punitive damages
• Hit-and-run crashes and collisions with uninsured drivers
• Truck and commercial vehicle crashes and Uber and Lyft collisions
• Collisions with county, city, or state vehicles, which carry their own notice rules (see injury claims against Virginia governments)

How long do you have to file a car accident lawsuit in Virginia?

In Virginia, you generally have two years from the date of the crash to file a lawsuit for your injuries (Va. Code § 8.01-243(A)). A claim for damage to your car has a longer, five-year period under subsection B of the same statute, but the injury claim is the one that matters most, and it is the one people lose by waiting.

A few rules can change the math. If the injured person is a child, the limitations period generally does not begin to run until the disability of minority ends (Va. Code § 8.01-229(A)). If the other driver is criminally prosecuted for the same crash, such as a DUI or reckless driving case, the time the prosecution is pending is not counted, and you then have the rest of the original period or one year, whichever is longer (Va. Code § 8.01-229(K)). Do not plan around these exceptions without advice; the safe course is to treat two years as a hard wall.

If a county, city, or town vehicle hit you, a much shorter clock applies: a written notice of claim within six months (Va. Code § 15.2-209).

Can you recover in Virginia if you were partly at fault?

Usually not. Virginia follows contributory negligence: if your own negligence was a proximate cause of the crash, it bars your recovery, even if the other driver was far more to blame (Williams v. Harrison, 255 Va. 272 (1998)). There is no percentage split the way there is in most states.

That rule cuts both ways. Contributory negligence is an affirmative defense, so the insurer has to prove it, measured by an objective standard of what a reasonable person would have done for his or her own safety, and it is ordinarily a question for the jury (Fultz v. Delhaize America, Inc., 278 Va. 84 (2009)). A judge takes it away from the jury only when reasonable people could not disagree. Much of our early work on a Virginia crash case is closing off the facts an insurer would use to make that argument.

How insurers defend Virginia crash claims, and how we answer

Insurance adjusters in Virginia know that a single sentence suggesting you were careless can end a claim. These are the defenses we see most, and the rules and evidence we use against them.

What damages can you recover after a Virginia car crash?

An injured driver or passenger in Virginia can recover medical expenses past and future, lost wages and lost earning capacity, and compensation for pain, inconvenience, disfigurement, and the ways the injury limits daily life. The Virginia caps that make headlines, the $350,000 limit on punitive damages and the cap that applies only to claims against health care providers, do not limit compensatory damages against a negligent driver.

Punitive damages when the other driver was drunk

Virginia has a statute aimed squarely at impaired drivers. A jury may award punitive damages in a motor vehicle injury or death case when the driver acted with malice or with willful or wanton conduct showing a conscious disregard for the rights of others (Va. Code § 8.01-44.5). The statute deems that standard met when the evidence proves the driver had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.15 or more, knew or should have known his driving would be impaired, and the intoxication was a proximate cause of the injury. A driver who unreasonably refused a blood or breath test can be held to a parallel standard based on proof of intoxication.

Without a 0.15 test result, the general standard still applies. The Supreme Court of Virginia describes willful and wanton negligence as acting in conscious disregard of another person's rights, or with reckless indifference to consequences the driver knows will probably cause injury (Alfonso v. Robinson, 257 Va. 540 (1999)).

Total punitive damages against all defendants cannot exceed $350,000 (Va. Code § 8.01-38.1). The jury is not told about the cap; if it returns a larger punitive award, the judge reduces it. The cap does not touch your compensatory damages.

Your own insurance after a Virginia crash

Virginia does not have a no-fault personal injury protection system. Instead, insurers must make optional medical expense coverage available, usually called MedPay, which pays reasonable medical and funeral expenses incurred within three years of the accident up to $2,000 per person or another limit you agreed to, plus optional income-loss benefits (Va. Code § 38.2-2201). On a personal policy insuring four or fewer vehicles with this coverage, the statute lets the limits on each insured vehicle combine when your expenses exceed one vehicle's limit.

The larger source of money in serious cases is often your uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. For policies that took effect or renewed on or after July 1, 2023, Virginia underinsured motorist coverage generally pays on top of the at-fault driver's liability limits rather than being reduced by them. We explain the details, including stacking and hit-and-run claims, on our page on Virginia uninsured and underinsured motorist claims.

Evidence checklist for a Virginia car crash claim

• The crash report number and the investigating agency (Virginia State Police, a county police department, or a city department). The report itself is not trial evidence, but it identifies drivers, witnesses, and the officer.
• Photos of every vehicle, the intersection or lane, skid marks, debris, and your visible injuries, taken over several weeks
• Names and phone numbers of witnesses, including other drivers who stopped
• Locations of nearby businesses, homes with doorbell cameras, and traffic cameras, so video can be requested before it is overwritten
• Your declarations page for every auto policy in your household, to identify MedPay and UM/UIM limits
• Medical records, bills, and explanation-of-benefits forms from the first visit forward
• Pay stubs, tax returns, and a letter from your employer about missed time
• A short journal of symptoms, missed events, and limits on daily activity

Our guide chapter on gathering evidence while it still exists explains which of these disappear first.

Where Virginia car accident cases are heard

Serious Northern Virginia injury lawsuits are typically heard in the local circuit courts: the Arlington County Circuit Court in Arlington, the Alexandria Circuit Court, the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, the Loudoun County Circuit Court in Leesburg, or the Prince William County Circuit Court in Manassas. Ryan Posey and Jacob Lebowitz are admitted in Virginia and appear in these courts.

Learn more about local roads, courts, and notice rules on our pages for Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County, or start at our Virginia personal injury lawyers overview. For how car crash claims compare across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, see car and truck accident claims.

Related reading

• Virginia's contributory negligence rule and the 1% problem
• The seatbelt defense in Virginia and why non-use usually stays out of the case
• Punitive damages in Virginia: the $350,000 cap and when juries award them
• Virginia's hands-free law and what it means for crash claims
• When nobody saw how the crash happened in Virginia
• DMV Injury Guide: contributory negligence, the rule that decides most DMV cases
• DMV Injury Guide: using your own insurance, including MedPay and UM/UIM

Responsible attorneys: Ryan C. Posey and Jacob M. Lebowitz. Posey Lebowitz PLLC, 3221 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007.