Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C. represents people injured in motor-vehicle collisions, trucking cases, premises liability incidents, medical malpractice, and wrongful-death matters across Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and New York. Our fee is paid out of the recovery — not out of your pocket. If we don't recover, you owe nothing.
Every personal-injury case starts with the same four legal elements — duty, breach, causation, damages. What changes is the evidence each kind of case requires, the experts each kind needs, and the insurance and statutory framework that determines what can be recovered. The categories below carry the firm's heaviest case volume.
Car, motorcycle, bicycle, pedestrian, and rideshare collisions. Insurance-claim handling, MedPay/PIP coordination, uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) recovery, and litigation against at-fault drivers, their carriers, and — where applicable — third-party employers under respondeat superior.
Commercial truck cases are not big car cases. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR), driver hours-of-service logs, electronic logging device (ELD) data, post-collision drug testing, and corporate-fleet liability create discovery obligations that don't exist in passenger-vehicle cases.
Slip-and-fall, trip-and-fall, inadequate-security, dog bites, and other injuries on someone else's property. Liability turns on the visitor's status (invitee, licensee, trespasser), the property owner's actual or constructive notice, and — in security cases — the foreseeability of the criminal conduct.
Misdiagnosis, surgical errors, birth injuries, medication errors, and failure to treat. Cases require a qualified expert to establish standard of care, breach, and causation. Most jurisdictions impose pre-suit certificate-of-merit requirements; missed deadlines extinguish the claim.
Where negligence causes death, the wrongful-death statute in each state defines who can sue (the personal representative or statutory beneficiaries), what damages are recoverable (economic loss, loss of services, sorrow, mental anguish), and how the recovery is distributed among survivors.
Brain injuries, spinal-cord injuries, amputations, severe burns, and other catastrophic harm. These cases require life-care planners, vocational economists, and reconstruction experts, and they justify the discovery investment that smaller cases cannot.
Personal injury is the one area of the law where the lawyer's fee comes out of the recovery, not out of the client's pocket. We tell people exactly how it works on the first call so there are no surprises later.
Tell us what happened. We'll tell you whether you have a case worth pursuing — at no cost and with no obligation. If we don't think the case is worth filing, we'll tell you that too.
Investigators, accident reconstructionists, medical-record retrieval, expert witnesses, deposition transcripts, filing fees, exhibits — all advanced by the firm. You pay nothing out of pocket while the case is pending.
If we don't recover anything for you, you owe us nothing — no fee, no costs, no bill. The risk of running the case sits with the firm, not with you.
The contingency percentage is written into the engagement letter you sign on day one — typically a defined percentage of the recovery, scaled by case stage. You'll know what we earn before we earn it.
The single most important question in any personal-injury file is: which state's law applies? Three of our five jurisdictions are pure contributory-negligence states — meaning even minimal fault by the injured person can defeat the entire claim. The other two follow comparative-fault rules. The same accident, with the same facts, can be a recoverable case in one state and a complete bar in another.
| State | Fault Rule | Statute of Limitations | Notable Doctrine or Trap | Wrongful Death Statute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Virginia VA
|
Pure Contributory Negligence
Even 1% fault bars recovery
|
2 yearsVa. Code § 8.01-243
|
Med-mal cap on total damages (escalates annually). Last clear chance doctrine offers narrow escape from contributory-negligence bar where defendant had final opportunity to avoid harm. |
Va. Code § 8.01-50
2-year SOL from date of death
|
|
Maryland MD
|
Pure Contributory Negligence
Even 1% fault bars recovery
|
3 yearsCts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101
|
Annually escalating non-economic damages cap in personal-injury cases. Certificate of qualified expert required within 90 days of complaint in med-mal cases under Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-2A-04. |
Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-901
3-year SOL
|
|
D.C. DC
|
Pure Contributory Negligence
Even 1% fault bars recovery
|
3 yearsD.C. Code § 12-301
|
Vulnerable-user statute (§ 50-2204.52) grants special protections to bicyclists and pedestrians — comparative-fault rule applies in those cases instead of pure contributory negligence. |
D.C. Code § 16-2701
2-year SOL
|
|
New Jersey NJ
|
Modified Comparative
51% bar — recover if ≤ 50% at fault
|
2 yearsN.J.S.A. 2A:14-2
|
"Verbal threshold" / Limitation on Lawsuit Option in PIP-elected auto policies — must show "permanent injury" to recover non-economic damages. Affidavit of Merit (AOM) required in med-mal within 60 days. |
N.J.S.A. 2A:31-1
2-year SOL
|
|
New York NY
|
Pure Comparative Fault
Recover even if 99% at fault
|
3 yearsCPLR § 214 · Med mal 2.5 yrs
|
"Serious injury" threshold under Insurance Law § 5102(d) in auto cases — non-economic damages only available where statutory categories are met. No-fault PIP covers initial $50K of medical/lost wages. |
EPTL 5-4.1
2-year SOL from death
|
Your health is first. Medical records also become the foundation of the case — gaps in treatment are aggressively used by insurance defense to argue the injury wasn't serious.
Photographs, dash-cam, surveillance, witness names, the vehicle itself. Skid marks fade, surveillance footage rolls off retention (often within 7–30 days), and witness memory degrades fast.
The other driver's insurance carrier will call. They will record. They are not trying to help you. Politely decline recorded statements and refer them to counsel.
Counsel sends preservation letters, opens the claim file with your carriers, and starts the investigation. The earlier we're in, the more evidence is still recoverable.
Nothing up front, and nothing at all unless we recover money for you. The consultation is free. The investigation, expert witnesses, medical-record retrieval, deposition costs, and filing fees are all advanced by the firm. Our fee — a defined contingency percentage — comes out of the recovery at the end of the case. The exact percentage is written into the engagement letter you sign on day one, so there are no surprises.
If we don't recover, you owe us zero. No fee, no costs, no bill.
It depends entirely on which state the accident happened in. In Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, the rule is "pure contributory negligence" — if you were even 1% at fault, you generally cannot recover anything. In New Jersey, you can recover as long as you were 50% or less at fault, with your recovery reduced by your percentage of fault. In New York, you can recover even if you were 99% at fault, again with the recovery reduced proportionally.
This is why the very first question on every case is which state's law applies. Three of our five jurisdictions are among the four contributory-negligence holdouts in the entire country — and the defense in those states will work very hard to assign even minor fault to you. Knowing the rule cold and litigating against it is a core part of the practice.
It varies by state and by claim type. Virginia and New Jersey: 2 years from the date of injury for most personal-injury claims. Maryland, D.C., and New York: 3 years generally, but 2.5 years for medical malpractice in New York. Wrongful death generally runs 2 years from the date of death in most of these states.
Two important traps: (1) some claims have shorter limitation periods (claims against governmental entities often require notice within 6 months or less), and (2) the limitations clock can sometimes be tolled for minors, incapacitated plaintiffs, or where the injury wasn't immediately discoverable. The first task at intake is calendaring the deadline correctly.
Yes — and here's why. People are notoriously bad at evaluating their own fault in an accident. The investigation routinely finds that the other driver did something the injured person didn't see, or that the road conditions, signaling, or another vehicle materially contributed. We've handled many cases where the client called convinced they were partly to blame, and the evidence — once collected — showed otherwise.
The consultation is free. Let us look at the facts before you decide there's no case.
Almost never — at least not before talking to a lawyer. Early settlement offers are made for a reason: the carrier knows the actual case is worth more, and it wants to close the file before the injured person knows the value or before delayed-onset injuries fully manifest. Once you sign the release, the case is over forever — even if you discover months later that you needed surgery, lost more work than you thought, or have permanent impairment.
The cost of a free consultation is nothing. The cost of signing a release before you understand the case can be the case itself.
Each state has its own wrongful-death statute defining who can sue, what damages can be recovered, and how the recovery is distributed. Generally, the action is brought by the personal representative of the estate (or in some states, by statutory beneficiaries directly) on behalf of the surviving spouse, children, parents, or other dependents.
Recoverable damages typically include economic loss (lost financial support over the deceased's projected working life), loss of services, medical and funeral expenses, and — depending on the jurisdiction — non-economic damages for sorrow, mental anguish, and loss of consortium. Many states also recognize a separate "survival action" for the deceased's pre-death pain, suffering, and lost wages, which is distinct from the wrongful-death claim. Both should be analyzed together.
The consultation is free. There is no obligation. If we think the case is worth pursuing, we'll explain why. If we don't, we'll tell you that too — and we won't bill you for the conversation. That is the promise on every personal-injury intake.
(888) 437-7747