Waterman Law Centers, PLLC

Attorney Avery T. “Sandy” Waterman, Jr.

Avery T. “Sandy” Waterman, Jr. continues to distinguish himself as a mediation, settlement, trial, and appellate lawyer for vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, and other wrongful death and serious personal injury cases, including brain injuries. For 17 consecutive years from 2007 to 2022, Mr. Waterman has been honored in Best Lawyers in America in two separate categories – “Plaintiff Medical Malpractice” and “Plaintiff Personal Injury” – for the Southeast Virginia region, including as a “Lawyer of the Year” 5 times in the past 9 years. Also, for 14 consecutive years from 2009 to 2022, he has been named to Virginia Super Lawyers. Additionally, for 13 consecutive years from 2010 to 2022, he has been recognized in the National Trial Lawyers “Top 100 Trial Lawyers in Virginia” and in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Further, at various times he has been named in America’s Top 100 Attorneys “Lifetime Achievement Award,” America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators, Hampton Roads Magazine “Top Attorneys” in Hampton Roads, Virginia Business’ Legal Elite, and Lawdragon’s “500 Top Plaintiff Lawyers”. 

Mr. Waterman has been enjoying substantial successes throughout Hampton Roads and elsewhere for over three decades. Almost 30 years ago, Mr. Waterman obtained a $750,000.00 federal court jury verdict in Lynchburg for a tractor-trailer truck victim, one of the then highest in that locality. In 1998, he won a $1,250,000.00 medical malpractice jury verdict in Hampton, and notched a $1,000,000.00 dollar settlement of a Newport News product liability case with a national vehicle manufacturer. His 2004 verdict for $850,000.00 in the City of Williamsburg and James City County for a brain injury victim was the then highest there. 

His record 2005 jury award of $1,680,000.00 for a patient fall in Newport News received prestigious front page coverage in Virginia Lawyers Weekly and was one of the year’s largest in Virginia. In 2006, that jury verdict was upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court in a landmark medical malpractice opinion that still stands as leading legal precedent today. See, Riverside Hospital, Inc. v. Johnson, 272 Va. 518 (2006). In 2007, he settled two class actions certified in the United States District Court for Newport News and Norfolk, one on behalf of 115 plaintiffs. 

In 2008, Mr. Waterman lobbied the Virginia General Assembly in opposition to House Bill 382, which inequitably stood to deny patients access to the true facts of their healthcare by providers who commit malpractice. Also in 2008, he obtained three then record settlements collectively totaling over $2,500,000.00 for Peninsula patient fall victims. In 2009, Mr. Waterman again successfully lobbied against H.B. 382. Also, he settled a multi-party suit in state court. 

His 2010 jury verdict of $6,100,000.00 for a brain injury victim in Gloucester County was by far the greatest there, one of the highest across Virginia, and subject of Virginia Lawyers Weekly front page coverage. Also in 2010, the $987,500.00 settlement that co-counsel and he obtained for a brachial plexus birth injury was then the largest known one of its kind in Virginia. In 2011, Mr. Waterman settled a medical malpractice case for $1,000,000.00.

On April 20, 2012, the Virginia Supreme Court opined in his Gloucester brain injury case that a high school Assistant Principal owed a duty of care to a student, that there was no statutory immunity for personal injury liability, that gross negligence is an exception to common law sovereign immunity, and that a reporting student’s de bene esse deposition was admissible. On December 7, 2012, a Newport News jury awarded his 88 year-old client $3,500,000.00 in another patient fall case against Riverside Hospital, Inc., wherein he introduced cutting-edge 3.0 Tesla MRI, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (“DTI”), and NeuroQuant Analysis. In 2013, Mr. Waterman settled a personal injury case for $1,400,000.00.

In 2014, Mr. Waterman was voted “Lawyer of the Year” by his legal colleagues in Best Lawyers in America for “Plaintiff Medical Malpractice” in the Southeast Virginia region. Also in 2014, he authored the amicus curiae brief of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in support of the plane crash wrongful death Plaintiffs, which prevailed in the Virginia Supreme Court’s leading opinion on Va. Code §8.01-401.1 “reliable authority”. See, Harman v. Honeywell International, Inc., 288 Va. 84 (2014).

In 2015, Mr. Waterman attended “Neuroanatomical Dissection: Human Brian and Spinal Cord” at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a 3-day course featuring 12 hours of hands-on regional dissections of embalmed human cadaver neuro-material and 9 hours of lecture sessions. Also in 2015, he spoke before the Long-Term Care Section of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in Richmond about “Policies, Procedures, Protocols, Et Al. – Discoverability and Admissibility!” Additionally in 2015, he addressed the Greater Peninsula Women’s Bar Association with “It’s Privileged Judge: In Fact, Actually Not! (Medical Malpractice Privilege Law)”. Further in 2015, he again presented to the Etheridge Society in Charlottesville re “Policies, Procedures and Protocols; Pilot Programs; EMR Metadata; and Risk Management Materials”. 

Williamsburg Office:
217 McLaws Circle
Suite 3
Williamsburg, VA 23185

Newport News Office:
11817 Canon Boulevard
Suite 206
Newport News, VA 23606

Hampton Office:
2101 Executive Drive
Suite 130
Hampton, VA 23666