Virginia Beach is Virginia’s most populous city and home to the Port of Virginia’s Norfolk facilities, Naval Station Norfolk, and I-64 freight corridors connecting the region to Richmond and beyond. Military vehicle traffic, port-connected carriers, and coastal logistics operations all contribute to a high commercial vehicle presence. Below are five highly rated law firms in Virginia Beach that handle truck accident and personal injury cases.
1. Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers
About the Firm: Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers is a premier personal injury firm in Coastal Virginia with over 120 years of combined experience and nine convenient meeting locations, including two in Virginia Beach. The firm has secured notable results including a $5 million verdict for a Hampton woman injured by a truck driver, a $6 million settlement ranked among the highest in Virginia in 2022, and an $800,000 settlement for a wrongful death tractor-trailer case. They are known throughout the region as “The Car Crash Experts.”
Services:
- Tractor-trailer and 18-wheeler accidents
- Commercial vehicle collisions
- Wrongful death claims
- Black box data and driver log investigations
- Active-duty military and government vehicle accidents
Address: Multiple Virginia Beach locations (Town Center and Birdneck)
Phone: (757) 333-3333
Website: https://cooperhurley.com/virginia-beach-injury/truck-accident-lawyer/
2. Rutter Mills
About the Firm: Rutter Mills has been serving the Virginia Beach community for decades and has represented some of the largest truck accident cases in Virginia. With over 65 years of experience, the firm offers compassionate, personalized representation for truck accident victims across Hampton Roads, including Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, and surrounding areas. They are available day and night.
Services:
- Semi-truck and tractor-trailer accidents
- Wrongful death
- Catastrophic injury cases
- Insurance company negotiations
- Workers’ compensation related to truck accidents
Address: Virginia Beach, VA (multiple area locations)
Phone: (757) 777-7777
Website: https://www.ruttermills.com/virginia-beach/
3. Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp
About the Firm: Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp has been providing high-quality personal injury representation in Virginia and North Carolina since 1985. Their Virginia Beach truck injury attorneys handle collisions involving commercial trucks, vans, tractor-trailers, and 18-wheelers. The firm is known for clear, consistent communication and has decades of experience navigating Virginia’s strict contributory negligence standard.
Services:
- Commercial truck and tractor-trailer accidents
- Railroad and FELA accident claims
- Wrongful death
- Catastrophic injury
- Pedestrian and bicycle accidents involving trucks
Address: Virginia Beach, VA (contact for office address)
Phone: (757) 648-3030
Website: https://www.hsinjurylaw.com/
4. Ruloff, Swain, Haddad, Morecock, Talbert & Woodward, P.C. (SRGS Law)
About the Firm: From their Virginia Beach offices, SRGS Law has handled truck accident claims throughout the Tidewater region for over 30 years. The firm is known for combining deep legal knowledge with genuine compassion for injured clients. They represent victims throughout Virginia Beach and the broader Hampton Roads area with a focus on getting clients the compensation they need and deserve.
Services:
- Tractor-trailer and large truck accidents
- Serious and fatal truck accident cases
- Wrongful death
- Multi-vehicle truck accident claims
- Truck driver and trucking company liability
Address: Virginia Beach, VA (contact for office address)
Phone: (757) 427-0500
Website: https://srgslaw.com/personal-injury-lawyer/truck-accident-lawyer/
5. Tronfeld West & Durrett
About the Firm: Founded in 1972 and serving Virginia Beach and the broader commonwealth for over 50 years, Tronfeld West & Durrett combines the resources of a large firm with personalized client service. Their truck accident attorneys identify all liable parties, including trucking companies, drivers, and manufacturers, and acts quickly to preserve critical evidence like electronic logs and maintenance records before they disappear.
Services:
- Semi-truck and commercial vehicle accidents
- Evidence preservation and accident investigation
- Multi-defendant trucking litigation
- Wrongful death
- Insurance bad faith and claims disputes
Address: Virginia Beach, VA (contact for office address)
Phone: (800) 321-6741
Website: https://twdinjurylaw.com/virginia-beach/truck-accident-lawyer/
Frequently Asked Questions About Truck Accidents in Virginia Beach, VA
Virginia Beach has significant military presence including Naval Air Station Oceana and Naval Station Norfolk nearby. If a government-contracted truck caused my accident, does that change my claim?
Yes. Trucks operating under military base support contracts or performing federal supply chain functions may be covered by the Federal Tort Claims Act rather than Virginia law, requiring you to file an administrative claim with the contracting agency within two years before filing in federal court. The threshold question is whether the driver was performing a federal function at the time of the crash. A private carrier making a commercial delivery near Oceana on public roads is not performing a federal function even if its cargo ultimately ends up on base. A contractor truck performing base maintenance under a government contract has a stronger federal nexus. Your attorney should obtain the truck driver’s trip sheet and the carrier’s contract documents to determine which legal framework applies before deciding where and how to file.
Virginia uses contributory negligence, which bars recovery if you are even 1% at fault. How does that affect a truck accident case on I-264 or the Virginia Beach Expressway?
Virginia is one of four remaining pure contributory negligence states, and the practical effect is that every truck accident case in Virginia Beach starts with a defense investigation aimed at finding some basis to assign partial fault to you. Virginia courts recognize the last clear chance doctrine as an exception, allowing recovery if the defendant had a final opportunity to avoid the accident and did not take it, but that doctrine is applied narrowly. The high stakes of the all-or-nothing fault rule make early evidence collection, witness statements, and accident reconstruction more critical in Virginia than in comparative fault states. Cases where the truck driver’s exclusive fault is unambiguous still recover fully, but ambiguous liability cases are much harder to win in Virginia than in states with proportional fault systems.
What is Virginia’s statute of limitations for truck accident lawsuits, and are there any specific considerations for accidents on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel?
Virginia gives you two years from the date of injury under Virginia Code §8.01-243. Wrongful death claims also carry a two-year window under Virginia Code §8.01-244. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is operated by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District, a state entity. Claims against the District for maintenance failures on Bridge-Tunnel infrastructure follow the Virginia Tort Claims Act under Virginia Code §8.01-195.3, which requires notice within one year and limits recovery to $3 million per occurrence against state entities. For private carrier accidents that happen to occur on the Bridge-Tunnel rather than because of the Bridge-Tunnel’s condition, standard Virginia law applies against the carrier without the government claims process, and the Bridge-Tunnel District’s toll transponder records can establish precisely when the truck entered and the speed it was traveling.
Virginia Beach’s military presence—Naval Air Station Oceana, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, and Dam Neck Annex—generates significant federal contractor truck traffic on Virginia Beach arterials and the I-264 corridor to downtown Norfolk, and the FTCA’s administrative claim requirement applies whenever the truck was performing a federal function at the time. Virginia Beach’s oceanfront resort district also hosts a concentration of food and beverage delivery trucks, hotel linen service trucks, and contractor vehicles operating on Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Avenue, where the City of Virginia Beach enforces seasonal commercial vehicle restrictions during summer resort season under Virginia Beach City Code Chapter 21. A carrier whose driver violates a seasonal truck restriction ordinance—which limits hours of operation or prohibits certain vehicle weights on specific resort area streets between Memorial Day and Labor Day—faces a negligence per se argument in Virginia courts under the principle that violation of a traffic safety ordinance establishes a rebuttable presumption of negligence. Virginia’s contributory negligence doctrine, which Virginia courts continue to apply as an absolute bar to recovery under the common law rule adopted in Virginia rather than any modified comparative system, means that Virginia Beach truck accident defendants will examine the plaintiff’s conduct at the scene in the same way that North Carolina defendants do.