Prominent Trinidadian-born attorney Roger V. Archibald has attained the no. 1 jury verdict in New York State for the use of excessive force, expressing humility for recognition of the award.
Archibald – a Brooklyn resident whose law office is located on Court Street, downtown Brooklyn – obtained the designation by TopVerdict.com (Top Verdict), an online journal that compiles and publishes annual lists of the largest financial recoveries obtained by US-based attorneys/law firms on behalf of their clients.
Top Verdict tabulates the no. 1 jury verdict from all plaintiffs’ jury verdicts in each case type. In Archibald’s case, it was for excessive force.
Compilation of the no. 1 jury verdict in New York is obtained the year before the results are published the following fall. In the case of Archibald, it was done in 2022, and the results published this fall.
Archibald’s no. 1 jury verdict focused on the case of Shuford v. New York City Department of Corrections (Docket No. 17-cv-06349), which pertains to a detainee at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, who was viciously beaten by two correction officers.
Archibald – the founder and lead litigator at Roger Victor Archibald, PLLC, 26 Court Street, # 711, Brooklyn – told Caribbean Life exclusively on Friday that “these officers falsified records to report that they were defending themselves; but, unbeknownst to them, the incident was captured on surveillance tape.”
Thereafter, 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 in the amount of $1.5 million, the no. 1 verdict for the “Use of Excessive Force in the State of New York in 2022,” Archibald said.
“I am humbled by the recognition of this award, and I am pleased that the jury in this case did right by my client,” he said, stating 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,” Archibald added. “Unfortunately, this transgression is even more common when the prisoner is a person of color. This is not how the law should operate, and the transgressors must be held accountable.
“The only entity with the authority to impose punishment on prisoners is a Court of Law, not their custodians,” he continued. “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, who resides in Brooklyn Heights, said he has been successful in many other areas of practice as well.
In International Relations, he said he represented the Government of St. Lucia in 2010 in Supreme Court, Kings County (Brooklyn), and negotiated down a $1.5 million demand to $475, 000 in a breach of contract real estate matter. The case was John James v. The Government of Saint Lucia, Anthony Bryan Severin & Michael Bartlett – Index No. 5418/2007.
Archibald said he also represented the Government of Grenada in 2010 in US Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, in a dispute involving Grenada’s oil and natural gas deposits in which he secured an outright dismissal of a $500 million suit brought by a Colorado-based oil magnate. The case was RSM Production Corporation, Jack J. Grynberg, and Grynberg Petroleum Company v. Mikhail Fridman, Len, Blavatnik, Lev Korchagin and Gregory Bowen – Index No.: 06-CV-11512.
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 in the amount of $2 million.
“We take our commitment of zealous representation of each client personally,” Archibald said. “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 was born in San Fernando, regarded as the “Southern Capital” of the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
At 11, Archibald said he gained admittance to the Queens Royal College, considered Trinidad and Tobago’s premiere secondary school.
In 1975, Archibald said he migrated to the United States with his family and settled in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, where he attended Boys and Girls High School.
In high school, Archibald said he “multi-tasked” decades before that phrase gained popularity.
He said he maintained a part-time job at a local supermarket; was elected senior class president; and was selected to participate in a High School Enrichment Program at Brooklyn College, where he took six credits of college-level courses. Archibald went on to graduate in the top 1 percent of his high school class.
In 1982, Archibald received his Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Brooklyn College.
During his years at Brooklyn College, Archibald said he was active in Student Government and, in particular, the Caribbean Students Union (CSU), where he helped champion the cause of minority student organizations for financial parity and inclusion in the college’s overall budgetary scheme.
In 1980, CSU and Archibald were in part responsible for electing the first person of color to the office of Student Government President in Brooklyn College’s 50-year history.
From 1982 until 1990, Archibald said he was employed in the pharmaceutical industry as a pharmaceutical sales representative. He said he marketed medications for a host of endocrine, circulatory, orthopedic and infectious disorders to both physicians and hospitals in New York City.
Archibald said he was admitted to Brooklyn Law School’s evening in 1987, and, having accelerated his graduation by a year by attending successive summer session courses, he graduated from the law school in 1990. He was admitted as a member to the New York State Bar the next year.
Archibald said he started his legal career in 1990 at the Big Six Accounting Firm of Coopers and Lybrand, now Price Waterhouse Coopers, where he analyzed complex statutory and regulatory taxing schemes, in addition to advising Fortune 100 clients on tax compliance issues.
In 1992, Archibald said he co-founded the boutique law firm of Archibald and Hap. He said the firm limited its practice to Personal Injury, Criminal Defense, Probate and Real Estate.
Four years later, Archibald said the firm disbanded, and he founded the present firm of Roger Victor Archibald, PLLC.
In 1996, Archibald said he testified – at the invitation of then United States Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), before the Congressional Black Caucus on Capitol Hill – on the negative impact that the proposed Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA) would have on the immigrant community in general and the Caribbean Community in particular, who resided in the Congressman’s electoral district.
Throughout his 30-year career, Archibald said he has been tapped as a legal analyst on both radio and television in New York, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago; he has been a keynote speaker at law school graduations, as well as high school and middle school graduations; he has served as a judge for Moot Court Competitions at New York Law School, as well as a judge for NYS Empire Mock Trial World Championships; and has chaired panel discussions at Brooklyn Law School and St. John’s University Law School.
In addition, Archibald has been an adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn since 1992. Courses taught include: Human Resources Law, Business Law, Negligence Law and Legal Aspects of Healthcare Administration.
