Civil Rights

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
― Robert F. Kennedy

“I had been pushed around all my life and felt at this moment that I couldn’t take it anymore.”

— Rosa Parks, on refusing to give up her seat on a bus in 1955

“There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.”
― Martin Luther King, Jr.

I represent clients in private rights of action for monetary damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against state entities and actors for personal injury or death resulting from violations of its clients’ Constitutional rights. I have represented estates of former inmates who have died in city and state correctional facilities, including the Richmond City Jail, alleging, among other claims, cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, and Due Process claims under the Fourteenth Amendment.

In a civil rights/medical malpractice wrongful-death case that I tried to verdict, a Richmond jury awarded a very substantial amount to the family of an inmate who died from pneumonia after being left untreated by the Jail’s medical staff. I filed the case under state law for wrongful death against the sheriff and former chief physician of the Richmond City Jail.  This wrongful death verdict was reported by the Richmond Times Dispatch as possibly “a record in Virginia for the death of an inmate.”

If you would like to discuss a civil rights personal injury or wrongful death matter, please contact me today.