Wade E. Byrd has nearly thirty years of legal experience helping clients in all types of cases with personal care and attention. Before opening the doors of his own law firm, he was employed as the Assistant District Attorney in Cumberland County from 1973-1977, serving as the Senior Trial Assistant from 1975-1977. In 1977, Mr. Byrd joined the law firm of Berry, Caudle, & Byrd. That firm became known as Berry & Byrd in 1986, and then The Law Offices of Wade Byrd in 1996. Mr. Byrd has extensive litigation and trial experience, and has focused his practice on serious medical malpractice, personal injury, and other complex tort litigation. Mr. Byrd is admitted to practice in all North Carolina State Courts, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Byrd received his law degree from Wake Forest University in 1973 and his undergraduate degree from Methodist College in 1970. He is a member in good standing of the American Bar Association, the American Board of Trial Advocates, the American College of Trial Lawyers, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Civil Justice Foundation, the Cumberland County Bar Association, the International Society of Barristers, the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, the North Carolina State Bar Association, served on the North Carolina Health Planning Commission in 1998, the Roscoe Pound Foundation, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, and the Wake Forest Alumni Council. He is also a member of Fayetteville Academy, the Fayetteville Kiwanis Club, the Key Club, Methodist College Board of Trustees, and the United Way.
Mr. Byrd was the 2001 recipient of the Walter Clark Award from the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers and is listed in "The Best Lawyers in America" and the "Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers." He is the past president of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers. He has published "In the Wake of Haslip: Punitive Damage Jury Instructions and Post-Verdict Reviews of Awards in North Carolina, Trial Briefs Vol. 24, No. 3, and is a frequent lecturer on a variety of legal topics such as:
Dealing with Juries - To Use or Not to Use an Expert and Alternatives to Hiring an Expert, 1989 Professional Negligence - Discovery and Proof of the Applicable Standard of Care, 1990 Damages - Economics of Catastrophic Injuries, 1991 Practical Trial Skills - Making the Most of Exhibits in Civil and Criminal Cases, 1992 Two Hot Topics: Punitive Damages in North Carolina and Winning at Mediation, Program Chair, 1993 Litigating and Recovering Punitive Damages - Shouldering the New Burdens of Proof to Obtain Punitives, 1995 Medical Malpractice, Pre-Screening and Case Selections: Which Frogs are Really Princes? 1996 The People's Choice Seminar: Winning Wrongful Death Closing Arguments, North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, 1996 Picking the Jury, Seminar Speaker - Jury Selection, 1997 Seminar Speaker: Summation by the Masters, North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, 1997 Personal Injury Cases - Jury Selection, 1998 Effectively Handling Wrongful Death Cases - Opening Statements & Closing Arguments, 1999 Panel Discussion - Attorney and Insurer Perspectives regarding the Standard of Medical Care, WFU Law Symposium, April 2002 Mr. Byrd has an impressive history of success over the years and has obtained the following verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients:
Confidential settlement in 2001: $15.0 million involving a 38 year-old African American male who was left a ventilator dependant quadriplegic as a result of his neck being broken during an intubation. Confidential settlement in 1996: $12.5 million involving a suicide. Gaston County: $10.75 million settlement with physicians and hospital in case involving an infant that had suffered permanent brain injuries at birth. Mecklenburg County: $8.1 million wrongful death verdict in case involving an outpatient suicide. This represents the highest verdict in the United States in a suicide case. Guilford County: $7.1 million verdict represented the first medical malpractice verdict in Guilford County, the highest medical malpractice verdict in North Carolina, at that time, and the second highest punitive damages verdict in the state Confidential settlement in 2001: $4.5 million involving a child who suffered significant brain injury as a result of medical treatment received for a heart condition. Cumberland County: $3.5 million verdict involving an infant that had suffered permanent brain injuries. Confidential settlement in 2001: $3.25 million for the wrongful death of a 46 year-old husband and father of 4 children who died due to a failure to see and appreciate a brain aneurysm by a radiologist performing an MRA (Magnetic Resonance Angiogram). Confidential settlement in 2002: $2.3 million for the wrongful death of a 38 year-old, wife and mother of 2 children who died following routine thyroidectomy. Cumberland County: $1.5 million settlement in a car accident involving a 31 year-old wife and mother of 2 children which resulted in a closed-head injury and permanent brain damage. Macon County: $800,000 wrongful death verdict in case involving throat cancer Wade E. Byrd has settled dozens of other cases in excess of $1 million
