The Virginia Supreme Court will soon decide whether Juan R. Jimenez, a 25 year-old man disabled since childhood, should be compensated for the injuries he sustained more than two years ago while receiving rehabilitative services at Didlake, a charitable organization in the Virginia area.

Virginia is one of the few remaining states that have not yet abolished it’s “charitable immunity” law, according to which a charitable entity cannot be sued by a beneficiary who is injured in its care. Though such laws may make sense in the abstract, the reality is that many of the so-called “charitable” organizations that enjoy the protection of these laws are big business, raking in 10s of millions of dollars in revenue each year. Didlake Inc. is one such organization.

Mr. Jemenez’s attorney, Benjamin W. Glass, a personal-injury lawyer based in Fairfax, Virginia had this to say:

“We are pleased that we will be given the opportunity to argue on Juan’s behalf that he should be entitled to his day in court. Didlake is a huge business and Juan has fought challenges all of his life. Going up against a huge $32 million a year business is like David facing Goliath. The original reason for protecting charities in Virginia no longer exists when you are talking about big business.”