About David Silver
Named by Super Lawyers one of New England's Best Lawyers, David Silver has built his career crafting defenses for some of the most challenging cases and in many of the nation's toughest districts. A passionate advocate for justice as a process, Silver began in the Bronx office of the Legal Aid Society of New York. He was later promoted to trial attorney for the Federal Defender Office in the Southern District of New York, where he went head to head with the country's best and brightest attorneys. Silver relocated to Vermont, working as a public defender, and two years later entered private practice with BarrSternberg. It was at BarrSternberg he helped build a criminal defense team reputed as one of the best in the state.
Silver has since grown his practice beyond defense, leading many personal injury, wrongful death, and employment law cases that have helped individual Vermonters recoup damages from powerful business and insurance interests. Silver is a Director of the Vermont Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, and on the Board of Directors for the Vermont Association for Justice, Vermont's trial lawyer organization. He is Board Certified in Criminal Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Silver co-founded the Bennington Meals on Wheels program and serves on the Board of Directors for the affordable housing group Shires of Bennington and Arlington.
Proven verdicts and settlements
Alfred Heekin, 84, suffered severe brain injuries on January 7, 2000, when he swerved to avoid a wrong-lane escort vehicle and struck an oversized manufactured home a Bennett Truck Transport rig was hauling across both lanes of Route 9 in Bennington, Vermont. He died nineteen months later. His widow, Marion Heekin, sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, and the Bennington firm now known as BarrSternberg took the case to a jury trial before Judge J. Garvan Murtha. On the third day of trial, with Marion Heekin about to testify, Bennett agreed to pay $1,200,000 to settle the wrongful death claim. Vermont imposes no cap on wrongful death damages, and because the case settled before verdict, the full amount stood with no appeal.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
