Publications of personal injury lawyer

Articles authored by personal injury lawyer

PUBLICATIONS

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  1. Law 101 (available on Amazon.com) is a 229 page book published by Sphinx Publications written by Brien Roche as a handy reference for the lay person.
  2. Virginia Torts Case Finder (available from Lexis Nexis) This 914 page book written by Brien Roche is a compendium of Virginia tort cases since 1940. The book is published by the premier legal publisher in the nation, Lexis Nexis and is a well recognized authority by lawyers and judges throughout the state of Virginia.
  3. Objections: Interrogatories, Depositions and Trial (available from Virginia Continuing Legal Education) is a book co-authored by Brien Roche, 120 pages in length and published by The Virginia Law Foundation. It is a well recognized book on how to make and meet objections during the course of trial and in pre-trial discovery. It is written primarily for attorney’s and is used state wide as a resource in that regard.
  4. Virginia Domestic Relations Case Finder (available from Lexis Nexis) . This 380 page book authored by Brien Roche is a compendium of domestic relations cases in Virginia reported by the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia Court of Appeals and is a handy reference not only for practitioners of domestic relations law but other practitioners in that it involves many equitable concepts that apply to a full range of cases.

ARTICLES AUTHORED

“The Standard of Expert Testimony is Not Reasonable Degree of Certainty” (Download PDF), Virginia Bar News, Vol. 36, No. 4, October, 1987; reprinted by Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Virginia State Department of Health, Medico-Legal Bulletin, Vol. 36, No. 6, November-December, 1987.

I have noticed over the years that insurance company lawyers frequently are able to frustrate attorneys representing injured persons by making an objection to any proposed expert testimony on the grounds that it is not phrased to the legal standard of “reasonable degree of medical certainty”. That, in fact, is not the standard for the admissibility of expert testimony at trial. Rather expert testimony must simply be based upon a probability not upon a certainty. This article promotes that idea.

“The Need for Jury Instruction or Argument on Collateral Source – A Proposal for Change”, (Download PDF) Special Feature in the Journal of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, Vol. 10, No. 3, Summer 1998.

This article addresses an issue pertaining to a concept called “Collateral Source”. Collateral source is a source of payment of money that is literally collateral to the claim. For instance, monies that you may receive as an injured person through your heath insurance policy or through the medical payments provision of your auto policy are technically a collateral source and as a general rule your receipt of those payments is inadmissible at trial. I have noted over the years in arguing injury cases to local juries that frequently it is assumed that the injured party is insured and therefore whatever medical expenses or loss of income that person has incurred does not have to be considered in terms of any monetary award. Some courts in the United States expressly tell the jury that they are not to engage in any such speculation but rather are to compensate the injured person for all of the items claimed including medical expenses and loss of income. Courts in the State of Virginia and the District of Columbia do not do that and this Article suggests that this is a problem that needs to be cured either in closing argument by the attorney representing the injured person or through a written instruction presented to the jury.

“Handling Carbon Monoxide Cases” co-authored by Brien Roche and Eric Kessel. (Download PDF) Published in the Journal of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in the Summer of 2004, Vol. 16, No. 3.

This article consists of an analysis of how carbon monoxide affects the human body and how persons who have been affected by carbon monoxide poisoning may be better represented by an attorney.

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