“All We Do Is Injury Law.” That’s the motto at Shapiro,  Lewis & Appleton law firm. We focus exclusively on injury law and have successfully represented hundreds of injured railroad workers for their important injury, disease or wrongful death claims. Our lawyers have over 100 years combined legal experience and we’ve handled a wide variety of FELA injury and disease cases througout the eastern USA involving CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS), Amtrak and other railroad company defendants, some establishing key railroad legal decisions.

Railroad injury and FELA law are key components to our practice and we immerse ourselves in pertinent railroad worker issues. We author railroad injury and safety law blog articles every week, and our attorneys have served as invited lecturers to other FELA/railroad injury lawyers for over a decade. For example, attorney Richard Shapiro co-authored “Railroad Health & Safety: A Litigator’s Guide” published in American Jurisprudence Trials (now in the nation’s law libraries) and recently mounted a successful appeal in an asbestos exposure and mesothelioma case for a railroad engineer’s surviving relatives before the West Virginia Supreme Court in Ratliff v. Norfolk Southern, which established a key precedent about releases and disease claims). Rick has been elected chair of the Railroad Law Section of the American Association of Justice, the largest group of railroad injury lawyers in the nation.

Attorney Randy Appleton has extensive experience in the field of FELA and railroad worker injury claims, and has tried these cases for decades. James Lewis is a veteran trial lawyer who has handled many serious injury and death cases in the transportation area.

We cannot legally state we are the best railroad injury lawyers, though we can tell you that many of our lawyers have been selected for the highest honors in our area of injury law and two of our lawyers are currently listed among the Best Lawyers in America (2010 Edition). In 2005, our law firm was the first plaintiff’s injury firm in Virginia selected for membership in a prestigious international group of highly ethical law firms, called Primerus. This organization carefully screens law firms and the Wall Street Journal reported that Primerus “wants to offer consumers a way to pick the good from the bad by establishing a sort of ‘Good Housekeeping’ seal of approval for attorneys.” Also, our law firm has the highest available “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell lawyer rating service. Three injury lawyers with our firm were designated Virginia Super Lawyers in 2010.

A real-life example of our railroad injury law court room success was in October of 2000 when our law firm and co-counsel obtained the largest mild traumatic brain injury verdict in the United States. The initial $46 million verdict was actually $60 million with the interest the jury assessed, and the matter was confidentially settled by defendant Norfolk Southern (NS) during the appeal.

Our railroad accident law firm has collected more than 1,000 depositions in railroad and FELA injury cases, hundreds of specific research files, as well as railroad manuals and documents relating specifically to railroad injury issues. Our staff includes attorneys that have been selected as designated legal counsel by national rail unions, and we have a team of investigators who provide valuable assistance in our clients’ railroad injury, derailment and crossing cases, having extensive railroad experience as former workers at CSX and Norfolk Southern.

We have handled railroad and FELA accident matters throughout the eastern United States. We are licensed in numerous states and regularly obtain special admission in others to try particular cases. We are ready and willing to come to you for any serious injury in a train or rail-related situation, no matter you live, including in the following states:

We’ve achieved success as injury attorneys the old fashioned way — by working hard and being ethical. We have earned the respect of former railroad worker clients, opposing attorneys and the courts. Now, we’d like to earn your trust and provide a free, legal consultation regarding your potential railroad injury or FELA claim. Please give us a call at (800) 752-0042 today, or send us a contact email which we will promptly respond to.

Donald F. Case, Jr. worked for more than 16 years with the Seaboard Railroad (CSX) between 1971 and 1987. Based in Richmond, he worked as a brakeman and conductor in both yards service and on roads. Serving as a union officer with Amtrak for six years, he represented Norfolk Southern, CSX and Amtrak. He has conducted railroad scene inspections and has investigated many crossing accidents, train derailments and motor vehicle accidents. He and his family live in Chester, Virginia (VA).

Herbert A. Wooten was born in Quantico, Virginia in 1944 and resides in Elm City, North Carolina, east of Raleigh. He was first employed as a trainman in 1964 by Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (Seaboard Coast Line/CSX Transportation, Inc.). He later worked as a conductor (freight and passenger service) and held numerous elected union positions. After 27 years of service on the railroad, he began his employment as an investigator in 1991. Since that time, he has investigated hundreds of railroad injury, motor vehicle, and industrial cases, and developed an extensive network of industry contacts.