Virginia Lawyers Weekly articles from April 2005

Virginia Lawyers Weekly archives from April 2005

Virginia Court of Appeals celebrates 20 years.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Brent Baldwin The Virginia Court of Appeals commemorated its 20th anniversary last Wednesday in a ceremony held in the chambers of the Supreme Court. Judges past and present were on hand for the tribute. Chief Judge Johanna L....

Loudoun County Circuit judge finds agent who failed to tell seller of bounced checks breached duty.(Sedler v. Select Properties Inc.)
April 4, 2005... Byline: Deborah Elkins A real estate settlement agent who was holding a deposit check from a buyer has to pay damages to the seller because the agent delayed telling the seller that the buyer's check had bounced. A real estate firm,...

Fractured 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gives workers' comp insurer priority.(Howard Delivery Service Inc. v. Zurich American Insurance Co.)
April 4, 2005... Byline: Barbara Grzincic (This article originally ran in The Daily Record, Baltimore, MD, another Dolan Media publication). By the most divergent vote possible on a three-judge panel, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided...

Predictions from proponents and opponents of end-use tax in America.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Ken Schachter (This article originally ran in the Long Island Business News, Long Island, NY, another Dolan Media publication). It's the $2 trillion question. Amid a push for tax reform by President Bush and with the...

Accountants predict that national consumption tax will bury them in paperwork.
April 4, 2005... Byline: David Reich-Hale (This article originally ran in the Long Island Business News, Long Island, NY, another Dolan Media publication). If the government passes a national consumption tax, expect paper recycling to become a red-hot...

Virginia chief justice says women's rights advocate should be inspiration to all lawyers.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Byline: Dara McLeod Virginia Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. says that all lawyers should draw inspiration from the life and struggles of Belva Ann Lockwood, a women's rights advocate and the first woman licensed to practice law...

Commentary: Grokster: Burning down the copyright house, or rearranging the furniture?(Column)
April 4, 2005... Byline: Jonathan M. Holda (This article originally ran in The Daily Record, Baltimore, MD, another Dolan Media publication). The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last Tuesday in MGM v. Grokster, a case that pits Silicon Valley...

U.S. Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: April 4, 2005.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Unpaid Workers' Comp Premiums - Priority Claim - Ch. 11 Joining the 9th Circuit, the 4th Circuit reverses the lower courts and holds in a split opinion that an insurance carrier's...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: April 4, 2005.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Commercial Financing Statements - Prisoner Filings The government is entitled to summary judgment in its suit filed against two inmates serving life sentences who have filed financing...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: April 4, 2005.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Employment Discrimination Sex Discrimination - Reduction In Force A retail store wins summary judgment in a woman's Title VII and ADEA suit alleging that her hours were reduced from full- to...

Virginia Trial Lawyers Assn. convention traditions grow each year.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Dara McLeod As members of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association gather at The Homestead this weekend, they can count on a number of events and escapades that have evolved into long-standing traditions. The Allen firm will host...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: April 4, 2005.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Jurisdiction - Removal - Asbestos Exposure Plaintiffs who are suing various asbestos manufacturers for their injuries from their alleged exposure to asbestos at Norfolk...

Virginia Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: April 4, 2005.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Indecent Liberties - Custodial Or Supervisory Relationship Where a 45-year-old man asked two neighbor girls, aged 13 and 10, to assist him in washing a horse, including the horse's...

Verdicts & Settlements: April 4, 2005: Med-mal case settles for $900K.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On Jan. 18, 2002, the plaintiff was admitted to the hospital, one week past her due date, for a planned induction of labor, where she came under the care of the defendant OB/GYN. The plaintiff had a...

Verdicts & Settlements: April 4, 2005: Jury finds for defense in spinal injury case.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff brought suit against her physician and his practice alleging that on Oct. 12, 2001, the defendant/physician unnecessarily performed a radiofrequency thermocoagulation injection on the left...

Verdicts & Settlements: April 4, 2005: Appendicitis case ends in defense verdict.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff was seen by defendant's employee-physician with complaints of epigastric pain that radiated to his left side with increased white blood cell count. He was admitted to the hospital the...

Virginia Trial Lawyers Assn. officers, directors to be elected.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff As noted on the front page, Courtland lawyer Richard E. Railey Jr. will become president of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association this weekend. Other members of the Executive Council who will take...

Commentary: The five golden rules of negotiation for lawyers.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Marty Latz, Special to Lawyers Weekly Let's say you're sitting at your desk Monday morning, your telephone rings, and it's Jane, opposing counsel in one of your cases, calling to see if you might be interested in discussing the...

The way to motivate office staff may not be what you think.
April 4, 2005... Byline: Amy Johnson Conner More than extensive benefit packages, more than cash bonuses, and even more than high salaries, support staff want opportunities for advancement, training to expand their expertise and flexible schedules,...

Three-judge panel in Loudoun County rules ethics charges barred by statute of limitations.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Dara McLeod A three-judge panel in Loudoun County has dismissed a disciplinary complaint against a Northern Virginia lawyer, finding that the proceeding was barred by a two-year statute of limitations. Virginia State Bar...

Attorneys who want to handle court-appointed cases in Virginia must apply by May 15.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Dara McLeod Any attorney who wants to handle court-appointed cases needs to submit an application to the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission by May 15, according to commission officials. New certification requirements for...

VA Court of Appeals rules mother with joint custody gets medical authority.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Deborah Elkins When a mother and father could not stop feuding over which pediatrician their 2-year-old daughter should see, they took their contest over "competing pediatricians" to a Fairfax divorce judge. Even though the...

Virginia Trial Lawyers Association elects new officers and directors.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff As noted on page one, Courtland lawyer Richard E. Railey Jr. recently became president of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. Other members of the Executive Council who took office are: *...

Survey shows more lawyers take work home.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Erin Suess (This article originally ran in St. Louis Daily Record, St. Louis, MO, another Dolan Media publication.) Most people think homework ends with graduation, but a new survey by Robert Half Legal found that attorneys...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: April 11, 2005.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Arbitration Stay - Debtor Reorganization - Ch. 11 Where debtor, who operated a coal mine in West Virginia, would have had its efforts to reorganize seriously hindered by an...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: April 11, 2005.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Alternative School Attendance - Due Process A student is not entitled to a preliminary injunction allowing his readmittance to his former high school, in his suit under 42 U.S.C....

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: April 11, 2005.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Discovery - Self- Critical Analysis Privilege - Attorney-Client Privilege In this suit by bank employees seeking overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the defendant...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 11, 2005: Judgment for defendant in arbitration agreement.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff-employee, a Virginia resident, initially brought suit against defendant-employer alleging breach of contract of a written severance agreement and violation of the Federal Electronic Transfer...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 11, 2005: Jury returns $2.5M verdict, a record in 27th Circuit.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This motor vehicle collision occurred due to the defendant tractor-trailer driver's negligent lane change. The defendant driver was traveling south on Interstate 81, in the right hand lane, when he...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 11, 2005: Auto accident settles for $900,000 in mediation.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was driving her vehicle when a backhoe carrying a steel plate pulled out from behind a delivery truck, into the path of the plaintiff's vehicle, and the steel plate entered through the...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 11, 2005: Jury finds for defense in med-mal hysterectomy case.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This case was originally tried to a hung jury in November of 2004. Defendant performed an uneventful, routine total vaginal hysterectomy on the plaintiff for complaints of unexpected bleeding...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 11, 2005: Plaintiff recovers $596,000 verdict, despite his negligence.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On Oct. 26, 2000, plaintiff stopped his truck to pick up recycling bins while in the scope and course of his employment. Before he could exit the truck, it was stuck from behind by one of the...

Commentary: People Finders: You can run but you can't hide.(Column)
April 11, 2005... Byline: Evelyn M. Campbell The recent theft of information on thousands of private citizens from data compilers Choicepoint and LexisNexis shocked ordinary Americans but it did not surprise those of us in the legal information business who...

Commentary: Finding the right person for the right job.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Cheryl J. Leone (This article originally ran in North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, Raleigh, NC, another Dolan Media publication.) Any successful law firm owner will tell you that hiring the right person for the right job is the...

Commentary: Relational databases: The forgotten legal resource.
April 11, 2005... Byline: Domenic Paolini (This article originally ran in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Boston, MA, another Dolan Media publication.) Almost every attorney uses word processing software on a personal computer to prepare documents....

Supreme Court of Virginia allows damages for lost life expectancy.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Paul Fletcher A man with prostate cancer can seek damages for "diminished life expectancy" in a medical-malpractice lawsuit, a Fairfax Circuit judge has ruled on an issue not yet addressed by the Supreme Court of Virginia. The...

William & Mary Law Students help with Saddam Hussein trial.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Brent Baldwin Whoever said law school was all theory and no practice never took Professor Linda A. Malone's class at the William & Mary School of Law. Malone, who previously served as counsel for Bosnia before the World Court,...

Virginia Court of Appeals rules drunk racer convicted of manslaughter.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Deborah Elkins On Feb. 11, 2004, two drivers left a Hooters restaurant to race their Corvettes down a Chesterfield County road, at the height of the late-afternoon commute. Minutes later, one of the cars, a black Corvette, had...

Make way for ducklings in Washington, D.C.(Brief Article)
April 18, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Warning: The gooey quotient in the next item is pretty high. In DeeCee, the Secret Service, serious guys and gals charged with the president and other dignitaries, have a new charge to guard - a...

Man represents himself and says he was convicted because his lawyer was incompetent.(Brief Article)
April 18, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff In Springfield, Mass., a guy named Thomas P. Budnick says he was convicted of assault because his lawyer was incompetent. The thing is, he represented himself at his trial. Budnick is appealing his...

VA. Lawyers In The News: April 18, 2005.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The Bristol-based firm of Elliott Lawson & Minor PC has named Eric W. Reecher as a shareholder and principal in the firm. Reecher is a graduate of Duke University and the Emory University School of...

Bankruptcy filings in the Western District of Virginia drop sharply.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Dara McLeod The number of first-quarter bankruptcy filings in the Western District of Virginia is down dramatically from last year, according to recent statistics released by the clerk's office for the Western District. ...

Retired Norfolk Judge Thomas R. McNamara passes away, March 13, 2005.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
April 18, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Retired Judge Thomas R. McNamara, who was a member of the House of Delegates and the state Senate before serving 19 years on the Norfolk Circuit Court, died March 13 at his home near Blue Grass in...

Roanoke attorney Arthur E. "Nurmi" Smith died March 22.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
April 18, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Longtime Roanoke attorney Arthur E. "Nurmi" Smith died March 22. He was 93. A native of West Virginia who moved to Roanoke when he was 4, he attended Roanoke College and earned his law degree from...

U.S. Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: April 18, 2005.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Attorney's Fees - State Agency Conflict - 'Person' The Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy was not entitled to an award of attorney's fees in this action against the...

Verdicts & Settlements: April 18, 2005: Woman receives $100,000 settlement in car accident.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was stopped at an intersection when the defendant stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake and crashed into the side of the plaintiff's vehicle. The plaintiff sustained a head injury...

Verdicts & Settlement April 18, 2005: Statute of Limitations defense overruled in VA Lemon Law Case.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff In this case, the plaintiff's 2003 Chrysler minivan suffered "limp mode" transmission failures, causing his vehicle to lock in second gear in warm weather, and forcing the consumer to return to...

Verdicts & Settlements April 18, 2005: Plaintiff awarded $125,000 for misdiagnosed hand injury.
April 18, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff presented to an emergency room with left hand pain after a motor vehicle collision, whereupon x-rays were ordered. Defendant emergency room doctor performed a "wet read" of plaintiff's...

Virginia State Bar to study mandatory malpractice coverage.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Dara McLeod The Virginia State Bar will study whether the bar should require practicing attorneys to have malpractice insurance, and when bar dues will need to be increased. VSB Executive Director Thomas A. Edmonds said at a...

Virginia State Bar again to seek right of appeal in ethics case.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Dara McLeod The Virginia State Bar needs the right to appeal disciplinary decisions because the current system is producing "inconsistent results," according to its top disciplinary enforcer. Bar Counsel Barbara Ann Williams...

Alexandria federal judge rules defense team cannot talk to or tape jailhouse informant.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Deborah Elkins An investigator for a criminal defense lawyer cannot talk to a jailhouse informant without his lawyer's consent, or tape-record a telephone conversation with the informant without the informant's consent. An...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: April 25, 2005.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Satellite TV - Encrypted Transmissions - 'Pirate Access Device' A plaintiff satellite tv company can sue a defendant suspected of using a "pirate access device" to intercept...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: April 25, 2005.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorneys Ethics - Investigator's Taped Phone Call An investigator hired by a court-appointed defense lawyer is bound by the lawyer's Virginia ethical obligation not to communicate with...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: April 25, 2005.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Habeas Corpus - Motion To Appoint Counsel - Sentencing - Booker A Harrisonburg federal district judge denies a drug defendant's pro se motion for appointment of counsel based on his...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: April 25, 2005.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Child Abuse - Protective Order - Duration A district court did not violate Va. Code Sect. 16.1-278.2(A)(3) by issuing a protective order for five years barring appellant from...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: April 25, 2005.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Nunc Pro Tunc Order - Court Authority A circuit court invokes its inherent authority to "speak the truth" to enter an order in defendant's criminal case nunc pro tunc to Nov. 16,...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 25, 2005: Med-mal death settles for $85,000 prior to trial.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The decedent was admitted to a state-operated geriatric/psychiatric facility. Two days after admission, the decedent was attacked and pushed to the ground by a second resident who had a long history of...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 25, 2005: Roanoke lawyer mediates Tennessee med-mal case.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff's decedent suffered from a cystolcele and stress urinary incontinence secondary to uterine prolapse and rectocele. Her gynecologist recommended an abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 25, 2005: Med-mal death settles for $100,000 prior to trial.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The 97-year-old decedent was admitted to the defendant nursing home for total medical management until her death in September of 2002. On the morning of Sept. 15, 2002, the resident was found by nursing...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 25, 2005: Auto accident mediated for $862,500 in Richmond.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was a driver who was T-boned by a tractor-trailer owned and operated by a national company. The plaintiff was transported by helicopter from the scene. The plaintiff was treated and...

Verdicts & Settlements-April 25, 2005: Auto accident settled for $250,000 in Virginia Beach.
April 25, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was the second in line in traffic, stopped and ready to make a left hand turn when she was rear-ended by the defendant, who was driving a Cox Cable truck. She suffered immediate onset...