Distinguished Trinidadian-born legal professional Roger V. Archibald has attained the no. 1 jury verdict in New York State for using extreme power, expressing humility for recognition of the award.
Archibald – a Brooklyn resident whose regulation workplace is situated on Court docket Avenue, downtown Brooklyn – obtained the designation by TopVerdict.com (Prime Verdict), an internet journal that compiles and publishes annual lists of the biggest monetary recoveries obtained by US-based attorneys/regulation companies on behalf of their purchasers.
Prime Verdict tabulates the no. 1 jury verdict from all plaintiffs’ jury verdicts in every case kind. In Archibald’s case, it was for extreme power.
Compilation of the no. 1 jury verdict in New York is obtained the yr earlier than the outcomes are revealed the next fall. Within the case of Archibald, it was executed in 2022, and the outcomes revealed this fall.
Archibald’s no. 1 jury verdict targeted on the case of Shuford v. New York Metropolis Division of Corrections (Docket No. 17-cv-06349), which pertains to a detainee at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, who was viciously crushed by two correction officers.
Archibald – the founder and lead litigator at Roger Victor Archibald, PLLC, 26 Court docket Avenue, # 711, Brooklyn – informed Caribbean Life solely on Friday that “these officers falsified data to report that they have been defending themselves; however, unbeknownst to them, the incident was captured on surveillance tape.”
Thereafter, he stated the officers have been arrested, pleaded responsible to official misconduct, and have been terminated by the Division of Corrections.
The case was tried within the US District Court docket in Brooklyn, and the jury returned a verdict within the quantity of $1.5 million, the no. 1 verdict for the “Use of Extreme Power within the State of New York in 2022,” Archibald stated.
“I’m humbled by the popularity of this award, and I’m happy that the jury on this case did proper by my shopper,” he stated, stating that “in the present day’s jurors are subtle and passionate, and they’re much less prone to deny a detainee truthful compensation for accidents sustained whereas in custody.
“In my 30 years of observe, I’ve witnessed the violation of numerous prisoners’ rights and the following apathy of the individuals sworn to serve justice,” Archibald added. “Sadly, this transgression is much more frequent when the prisoner is an individual of coloration. This isn’t how the regulation ought to function, and the transgressors have to be held accountable.
“The one entity with the authority to impose punishment on prisoners is a Court docket of Regulation, not their custodians,” he continued. “Detainees are purported to be within the care, custody and management of the state, and nothing provides their caregivers the suitable to brutalize them.”
Archibald, who resides in Brooklyn Heights, stated he has been profitable in lots of different areas of observe as properly.
In Worldwide Relations, he stated he represented the Authorities of St. Lucia in 2010 in Supreme Court docket, Kings County (Brooklyn), and negotiated down a $1.5 million demand to $475, 000 in a breach of contract actual property matter. The case was John James v. The Authorities of Saint Lucia, Anthony Bryan Severin & Michael Bartlett – Index No. 5418/2007.
Archibald stated he additionally represented the Authorities of Grenada in 2010 in US Court docket of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, in a dispute involving Grenada’s oil and pure fuel deposits through which he secured an outright dismissal of a $500 million go well with introduced by a Colorado-based oil magnate. The case was RSM Manufacturing Company, Jack J. Grynberg, and Grynberg Petroleum Firm v. Mikhail Fridman, Len, Blavatnik, Lev Korchagin and Gregory Bowen – Index No.: 06-CV-11512.
Earlier this month, in a private damage matter in Supreme Court docket, Kings County, Archibald stated he settled a building accident go well with on behalf of a Caribbean building employee within the quantity of $2 million.
“We take our dedication of zealous illustration of every shopper personally,” Archibald stated. “Regardless of our shopper’s station, whether or not a unvoiced building employee or the top of a sovereign nation, we don’t again down till our shopper’s rights are vindicated.”
Archibald was born in San Fernando, considered the “Southern Capital” of the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
At 11, Archibald stated he gained admittance to the Queens Royal Faculty, thought of Trinidad and Tobago’s premiere secondary faculty.
In 1975, Archibald stated he migrated to the USA along with his household and settled within the Bedford-Stuyvesant part of Brooklyn, the place he attended Boys and Ladies Excessive College.
In highschool, Archibald stated he “multi-tasked” a long time earlier than that phrase gained reputation.
He stated he maintained a part-time job at a neighborhood grocery store; was elected senior class president; and was chosen to take part in a Excessive College Enrichment Program at Brooklyn Faculty, the place he took six credit of college-level programs. Archibald went on to graduate within the prime 1 % of his highschool class.
In 1982, Archibald obtained his Bachelor of Arts diploma in communications from Brooklyn Faculty.
Throughout his years at Brooklyn Faculty, Archibald stated he was lively in Scholar Authorities and, specifically, the Caribbean College students Union (CSU), the place he helped champion the reason for minority scholar organizations for monetary parity and inclusion within the school’s general budgetary scheme.
In 1980, CSU and Archibald have been partly accountable for electing the primary particular person of coloration to the workplace of Scholar Authorities President in Brooklyn Faculty’s 50-year historical past.
From 1982 till 1990, Archibald stated he was employed within the pharmaceutical trade as a pharmaceutical gross sales consultant. He stated he marketed drugs for a bunch of endocrine, circulatory, orthopedic and infectious problems to each physicians and hospitals in New York Metropolis.
Archibald stated he was admitted to Brooklyn Regulation College’s night in 1987, and, having accelerated his commencement by a yr by attending successive summer season session programs, he graduated from the regulation faculty in 1990. He was admitted as a member to the New York State Bar the subsequent yr.
Archibald stated he began his authorized profession in 1990 on the Huge Six Accounting Agency of Coopers and Lybrand, now Value Waterhouse Coopers, the place he analyzed advanced statutory and regulatory taxing schemes, along with advising Fortune 100 purchasers on tax compliance points.
In 1992, Archibald stated he co-founded the boutique regulation agency of Archibald and Hap. He stated the agency restricted its observe to Private Harm, Prison Protection, Probate and Actual Property.
4 years later, Archibald stated the agency disbanded, and he based the current agency of Roger Victor Archibald, PLLC.
In 1996, Archibald stated he testified – on the invitation of then United States Rep. Edolphus Cities (D-NY), earlier than the Congressional Black Caucus on Capitol Hill – on the unfavorable affect that the proposed Unlawful Immigration Reform and Immigrant Accountability Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA) would have on the immigrant neighborhood basically and the Caribbean Neighborhood specifically, who resided within the Congressman’s electoral district.
All through his 30-year profession, Archibald stated he has been tapped as a authorized analyst on each radio and tv in New York, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago; he has been a keynote speaker at regulation faculty graduations, in addition to highschool and center faculty graduations; he has served as a decide for Moot Court docket Competitions at New York Regulation College, in addition to a decide for NYS Empire Mock Trial World Championships; and has chaired panel discussions at Brooklyn Regulation College and St. John’s College Regulation College.
As well as, Archibald has been an adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s Faculty in Brooklyn since 1992. Programs taught embrace: Human Assets Regulation, Enterprise Regulation, Negligence Regulation and Authorized Facets of Healthcare Administration.
