About J. Westwood Smithers
J. Westwood Smithers, III is a personal injury attorney at Marks & Harrison, working in the firm's Chesterfield and Hopewell, Virginia offices. He focuses his practice on representing personal injury victims and their families and serves alongside Ryan T. Walker as a lead attorney in the Chesterfield office.
Smithers earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Richmond School of Law in 2017 and his undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon College. He was named one of the 2022 Legal Elite by Virginia Business.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Marks & Harrison
These results are credited to Marks & Harrison. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
A tractor-trailer drifted into a retired 20-year veteran's lane on Interstate 95 North and killed him, and Marks & Harrison recovered $10 million for his family before any lawsuit was filed.
A City of Richmond worker suffered permanent brain damage when a runaway Norfolk Southern boxcar with a missing brake rod drove a floodwall gate into him, and a Richmond jury returned a $10 million verdict.
A heavy retail display toppled onto a 7-year-old, fracturing the child's skull and forcing emergency brain surgery, and Marks & Harrison resolved the premises liability case for $9 million.
In February 2015 a Chesterfield County, Virginia police officer fired a Taser at Miles November, a 27-year-old man trapped in a wrecked car soaked in gasoline after a police chase. His clothing ignited and he suffered burns over most of his body, followed by months in the hospital and more than 30 surgeries. He sued the county and the officer in federal court in Richmond. The case settled in 2018 for $6.5 million, paid by the county's commercial insurer and its self-insurance fund.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
