NEW YORK, CMC – A prominent Trinidadian-born attorney has attained the top position in New York State for the use of excessive force, expressing humility for recognition of the award.
Roger V. Archibald obtained the designation by TopVerdict.com (Top Verdict). This online journal compiles and publishes annual lists of the most significant financial recoveries obtained by US-based attorneys and law firms on behalf of their clients.
Top Verdict tabulates the number one jury verdict from all plaintiffs’ jury verdicts in each case type. In Archibald’s case, it was for excessive force.
Archibald’s number one jury verdict focused on the case of Shuford v. New York City Department of Corrections and involved a detainee at Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York, whom two correction officers viciously beat.
Archibald, the founder and lead litigator at Roger Victor Archibald, PLLC, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that “these officers falsified records to report that they were defending themselves; but, unbeknownst to them, the incident was captured on surveillance tape.”
After that, he said the officers were arrested, pleaded guilty to official misconduct, and were terminated by the Department of Corrections.
The case was tried in the US District Court in Brooklyn, and the jury returned a verdict for US$1.5 million, the number one Verdict for the “Use of Excessive Force in the State of New York in 2022,” Archibald said.
“The recognition of this award humbles me, and I am pleased that the jury, in this case, did right by my client,” he said, adding that “today’s jurors are sophisticated and passionate, and they are less likely to deny a detainee fair compensation for injuries sustained while in custody.
“In my 30 years of practice, I have witnessed the violation of countless prisoners’ rights and the subsequent apathy of the people sworn to serve justice. Unfortunately, this transgression is even more common when a prisoner is a person of color. This is not how the law should operate; the transgressors must be held accountable.
“The only entity with the authority to punish prisoners is a Court of Law, not their custodians. Detainees are supposed to be in the care, custody, and control of the state, and nothing gives their caregivers the right to brutalize them.”
Archibald said he has also succeeded in many other areas of practice. In 2010, he represented the St. Lucia government in the Supreme Court, Kings County (Brooklyn), and negotiated down a US$1.5 million demand to US$475 000 in a breach of contract real estate matter.
Archibald said he also represented the Grenada government in 2010 in a dispute involving Grenada’s oil and natural gas deposits. He secured an outright dismissal of a US$500 million suit brought by a Colorado-based oil magnate.
Earlier this month, in a personal injury matter in Supreme Court, Kings County, Archibald said he settled a construction accident suit on behalf of a Caribbean construction worker for two million US dollars.
“We take our commitment to the zealous representation of each client personally. Irrespective of our client’s station, whether a voiceless construction worker or the head of a sovereign nation, we do not back down until our client’s rights are vindicated.”
Archibald migrated to the United States with his family and graduated from the Brooklyn Law School in 1990. He was admitted as a New York State Bar member the following year.
In 2006, Archibald said he took a six-month sabbatical from his practice, enrolled in the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, and has been admitted to the Jamaican Bar, making him eligible to practice in any Commonwealth Jurisdiction.
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