Virginia Lawyers Weekly articles from December 2006

Virginia Lawyers Weekly archives from December 2006

Commentary: how to choose furniture for your office.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Choosing office furniture can be a daunting task. It's a considerable expense, and your choices will affect employees' daily lives for many years to come. And chances are, like many others charged with this...

Virginia law firms announce personnel changes and promotions.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The Roanoke law firm of Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore has added two new litigation attorneys. Jennifer R. Belcher joins the firm as an associate and will practice with the commercial litigation group....

U.S. court law preempts state e-mail statutes.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The federal CAN-SPAM Act preempts the efforts of states to control e-mail on the basis of simple mistakes as opposed to material misrepresentations, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in the first appellate...

Virginia court gives full faith and credit to prior Vermont court ruling on lesbian couple's divorce.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Deborah Elkins A Virginia court hearing a lesbian couple's custody case must give "full faith and credit" to prior court rulings in Vermont that issued after the couple split and the biological mother and the child moved to...

Virginia court adopts rule to make pro hac appearances for out-of-state lawyers more expensive.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The Supreme Court of Virginia adopted on Tuesday a rule that will make pro hac vice appearances by out-of-state lawyers much more formal and expensive. The court studied the proposed Rule 1 A:4 adopted by the...

Lloyd's of London must pay warranty on Danville bridge in Virginia.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Syndicates of Lloyd's, London must provide $500,000 of coverage under a warranty they backed for a company that went out of business after providing the coating for the structural steel of the Union Street Bridge in...

Virginia jury awards $4M verdict in 'wrongful birth' case.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper A Fairfax County Circuit Court jury has returned a $4 million wrongful birth verdict for a woman who delivered identical twins with Down syndrome in September 2002. The jury also awarded $500,000 to the father of...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 4, 2006.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Black Lung Benefits - Pneumoconiosis - Causation Testimony from the pathologist who performed an autopsy on claimant's husband and found complicated pneumoconiosis was...

U.S. Eastern District Court of Virginia Case Summaries: December 4, 2006.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Police Shooting - Plaintiff Deposition - Motion To Compel A district court denies the government's motion to compel plaintiff to answer questions about his alleged drug use during...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 4, 2006.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Robbery - Sentencing - Apprendi A defendant's robbery and firearm convictions are affirmed despite his claim that the trial court improperly sentenced him in violation of Apprendi v....

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: December 4, 2006.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Nonresident Bond - Filing Fees - Service Of Process A nonresident of Virginia who is filing a medical malpractice suit related to the death of his pregnant wife and their child...

Verdicts & Settlements December 4, 2006: Virginia slip-and-fall suit settles for $100K.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff, a computer program assistant, stopped to fill his car with gas at a Northern Virginia station. While it had not rained or snowed for a couple of days, records obtained from the National...

Verdicts & Settlements December 4, 2006: Virginia jury awards $40K in drunken-driving suit.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On Sept. 11, 2005, a Sunday evening, the plaintiff was driving in Harrisonburg when an oncoming vehicle turned left, struck his driver's side and ran him into a tree. He declined an invitation to go to...

Verdicts & Settlements December 4, 2006: Virginia laborer fatality results in $175K settlement.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The decedent was a 47-year-old Virginia laborer who was fatally injured when a third-party vehicle struck and went through a road construction barrier. A minimum limits settlement of the UM policy was...

Verdicts & Settlements December 4, 2006: Virginia jury awards $900K to widow in wrongful death suit.
December 4, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff In April 2002, the defendant dermatologist removed a suspicious mole from the mid-back of the decedent, a 65-year-old retired white male. The defendant performed gross and microscopic pathologic...

Commentary: employees don't always behave themselves at company-sponsored events.
December 11, 2006... Byline: John Finerty Holiday parties are annual events at most companies. They come in all shapes and sizes - from small lunches to full-blown catered events at the local country club. Whether your company's holiday party is large or...

Quick office 'health' checks.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Nancy Byerly Jones Dolan Media Newswires There's just not enough time in a day. Where did the years go? How did I get to this age so fast? Got to get to that backburner client matter tomorrow! If you're like me, these types of...

Virginia Indigent Defense Commission adopts standards of practice for public defenders and attorneys.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The Virginia Indigent Defense Commission has adopted standards of practice for the public defenders and court-appointed attorneys who represent indigent defendants in the state. The standards don't take effect until...

U.S. District Judge rules small plumbing company had no liability to large plumbing company.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Atlantic Re-Plumbing LLC started as two guys with a truck who knew how to replace polybutylene pipe in homes. Radec Koci and Peter Rodriguez gained much of that knowledge--and access to a contract form--during the...

Chief judge of the 4th Circuit will be stepping down July 1.(William W. Wilkins)
December 11, 2006... Byline: Cynthia Di Pasquale Dolan Media Newswires The top judge of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals plans to step down next summer. Chief Judge William W. Wilkins, 64, informed President Bush late last month that he intends to...

Study committee recommends a Part Nine to the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff A committee appointed to study privacy and access to court records has recommended a Part Nine to the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia that would establish procedures for sealing and unsealing...

Virginia's 2007 General Assembly to fill 19 judgeships.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The General Assembly will have at least 19 judicial vacancies to fill in the 2007 session, with seven retirements, three vacancies for which replacements have not been named and the creation of nine new positions. ...

Virginia Bar Association seeks best way to provide useful input in selection of appellate judges.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper After the judicial interviews on Dec. 1, a legislative subcommittee met with Virginia Bar Association President William R. Van Buren III and Phillip V. Anderson, immediate past president of the Virginia State Bar, to...

Virginia Law Foundation establishes Oliver White Hill internship fund.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The Virginia Law Foundation is establishing the Oliver White Hill Internship Fund to recognize the prominent civil rights attorney and assist attorneys who want to practice in the field of civil rights...

Virginia co-leader of the regulated industries and government relations team dies from liver cancer.(Obituary)
December 11, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff James M. Rinaca, a co-leader of the regulated industries and government relations team in the Richmond office of Hunton & Williams, died Dec. 6 of complications from liver cancer. He was 55. "He...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 11, 2006.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Excessive Force - Traffic Stop - Opinion Evidence A police officer who gave multiple kicks to a suspect who fled a traffic stop, but who already was subdued, can be convicted of felony...

U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia Case Summaries: December 11, 2006.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Jurisdiction - Gas Station Sale - Discrimination In this suit in which an African-American businessman who owns a petroleum distribution company alleges that defendant petroleum...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 11, 2006.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Manslaughter - Sentence - Post- Release Supervision A trial court did not err in sentencing defendant, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, a class 5 felony, to three years in...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: December 11, 2006.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Legal Notice Publishing - Free Paper A circuit judge denies a newspaper publishing company's petition for renewal of authority to publish legal advertising pursuant to Va. Code...

Verdicts & Settlements December 11, 2006: Virginia doctor prevails in med-mal death suit.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff In May 2003 the patient underwent gastric bypass surgery. Her immediate postoperative course was uneventful and she was discharged in the normal course following a normal Upper GI Series radiology...

Verdicts & Settlements December 11, 2006: Virginia woman wins $4M in wrongful birth suit.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The patient was of advanced maternal age and was at high risk for giving birth to a baby with Down syndrome. She was advised that the only way she could learn whether her baby had Down syndrome was to...

A primer on holiday office parties.
December 11, 2006... Byline: Heidi R. Centrella, Dolan Media Newswires t's 11 p.m. and everybody's favorite receptionist - bourbon in hand - is perched on the grand piano, sporting a red-tasseled lampshade and belting her 37th chorus of "Jingle Bells." ...

Truth proves stranger than fiction in Grisham's latest.(John Grisham's 'The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town')(Book review)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Matt Harper-Nixon Dolan Media Newswires John Grisham has made a career writing books that often rely on legal situations bordering on the outrageous. In "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town," Grisham's first foray...

The Best of 2006 - Top News.
December 18, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper In many ways, 2006 was a year of meetings and heavy thinking. Commissions, committees, task forces and study groups considered the long-term future of the judicial system, proposed formal Rules of Evidence, pondered...

Best Virginia federal stories of 2006.(Directory)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Deborah Elkins FEDERAL COURTS One of the top stories in federal courts covered by Virginia Lawyers Weekly has been the unfolding effect of U.S. v. Booker on criminal sentences. Under Booker, guidelines set by the U.S....

The Best of 2006 - Yearly Recap.
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff JANUARY January 3 Rockingham makes use of videoconferencing In Rockingham County, the local J&DR court has been using videoconferencing technology for several years. In November, the...

Virginia law firms announce personnel changes and promotions.(Mark D. Matthews and Anthony J. Tacconi )
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Mark D. Matthews and Anthony J. Tacconi have joined the Richmond office of Bowman & Brooke. Matthews will defend manufacturers on product liability claims brought against them. He previously worked...

Power company wins $4.8M for failure to receive coal.(Ontario Power Generation Inc.)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The cost of coal almost doubled between early 2004 and early 2005, from $33.50 to $64.67 a ton. The difference adds up quickly when you're talking 154,820 tons--to $4,825,379.40. A federal jury in Richmond...

Woman can arbitrate claim, needn't exhaust her remedies.(CACI Premier Technology Inc v. Faraci )
December 18, 2006... Byline: Deborah Elkins A woman who alleged sexual harassment and retaliation by her defense-contractor employer used the employer's mandatory arbitration procedure to side-step restrictive Title VII law and collect over $100,000 for her...

Immunity for Univeristy of Virginia group splits the circuit.(Morris v. U.Va. Health Services Foundation)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The U.S. Supreme Court frequently decides cases involving a split between federal circuits on a legal issue. The Supreme Court of Virginia may have to decide a split within a state circuit. Three circuit judges...

Groups target 2008 for mental health reform.
December 18, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Initiatives to reform the state's mental health laws may be too late to have much of an impact in the 2007 session of the General Assembly, but momentum is clearly building for an effort to win more state money for...

Reckless speeding, DUI still double jeopardy, Chesterfield judge rules.
December 18, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper A Richmond attorney has argued successfully that the General Assembly didn't accomplish what it tried to do in allowing the prosecution of both drunken and reckless driving in some cases. Before 2004, Virginia Code...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 18, 2006.(Miller v. Brown, Chair of Virginia State Board of Elections)(U.S. v. McIver )
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Voting - Open Primary - Va. Law - Right Of Association A federal district court enjoins the Virginia State Board of Elections from requiring plaintiffs to hold an "open" primary...

U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia: December 18, 2006.(UTrue Inc. v. Page One Science Inc.)(Winfrey v. Costco Wholesale Corp.)(Avaya Inc. v. Mitel Networks Corp.)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Removal - Jurisdiction - Security Technology Agreement In this dispute between two technology companies over a failed agreement for the development of security technology, the...

U.S. District Court of Western Virginia: December 18, 2006.(Campbell v. Ethex Corp.)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Employment Products Liability - Settlement Documents - Public Disclosure A district court grants a drug manufacturer's motion to seal the settlement documents in a suit alleging a woman died...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 18, 2006.(White v. Commonwealth)(Askew v. Commonwealth)(Scott v. Commonwealth)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Bail - Firearm Charge A trial court erred in holding that it could not consider defendant's motion for bail pending his appeal of a conviction for possession of a firearm as a...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: December 18, 2006.(Harris v. Finnerty )
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative DMAS Appeal - Lease Of Home - Life Estate A disabled woman's deed of her house to her adult son to allow for refinancing so that she did not lose the house did not result in a...

Verdicts & Settlements December 18, 2006: Virginia comp claimant with back pain settles medicals.(Cogle v. Kora & Williams)(Brief article)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Field laborer earning $360.00 per week after only a month with this now defunct employer fell and injured his back and head. At the time of settlement, the 49-year-old claimant was a county employee...

Verdicts & Settlements December 18, 2006: Property owners win $5.1M for loss of access to land.(Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner of Virginia v. B. Francis Saul, II, et al.)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The primary issue in this condemnation case was whether or not the elimination of access to the property due to the construction of an interchange on Route 28 damaged the residue of the landowner's...

Verdicts & Settlements December 18, 2006: Fall at Williamsburg resort in Virginia settles for $275K.(Fleck v. Sunterra Corp.)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This case arose out of a slip and fall that occurred on a patio deck at the Powhatan Plantation Resort in Williamsburg. The plaintiff, age 64, had rented a condominium unit for her family's...

Verdicts & Settlements December 18, 2006: Virginia retrial of trip-and-fall ends in $150K settlement.(Honesty v. P & H Investments, Inc.)
December 18, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This case was previously tried to a defense verdict but successfully appealed and reversed by the Supreme Court of Virginia due to improper introduction of prior alcohol use by plaintiff that was...

In 2007, treat yourself better.(New Year resolutions)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Adina Genn Dolan Media Newswires New Year's resolutions. Many people vow to fit exercise into their routines and eat right. So why not take the opportunity to improve their business acumen too? While setting revenue targets is...

Accessibility, decor are key in elder-law offices.(law firms that connect with clients)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Nora Lockwood Tooher Dolan Media Newswires It took elder-law attorney Stuart Zimring four months to find what he calls the "Goldilocks chairs" for his conference room. The chairs - not too high, not too low, not too soft, with...

Virginia governor proposes an extra $12.6M for indigent criminal defense.(Timothy M. Kaine )
December 25, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has recommended spending an additional $12.6 million in 2007-08 for indigent criminal defense--$3.6 million for the Indigent Defense Commission and $9 million for waivers of fee caps in...

Virginia court rules an agreement not to compete may be enforceable without geographic limitations.(Homeland Defense Journal Inc. v. Pro Media Inc.)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper An agreement not to compete may be enforceable even without any geographic limitation in its terms, a Fairfax County judge has ruled. The issue arose from a magazine and Web site published by Homeland Defense...

Virginia man sues Web host for refusing to transfer his name to another internet provider.(Dawson v. Norman Brandsberg )
December 25, 2006... Byline: Deborah Elkins A man who used his personal name as a domain name to sell real estate can employ a federal cyberpiracy statute to sue the Web host who refuses to transfer that name to another Internet service provider. Even...

Virginia court rules testimony not needed to admit certificate of analysis.
December 25, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Virginia law that allows the admission of a certificate of analysis without testimony by the person who conducted the analysis does not violate the Confrontation Clause of the U.S. Consti-tution, the Virginia Court of...

Virginia-based McGuireWoods LLP chairman expects company growth.(Richard Cullen)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Richard Cullen, the new chairman at McGuireWoods LLP, expects the firm to continue to grow much as it did during the tenure of his predecessor, Robert L. Burrus Jr. And not just in terms of lawyers and number of...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 25, 2006.(Giovani Carandola Ltd. v. Fox)(Child Evangelism Fellowship of S.C. v. Anderson School District Five)(U.S. v. Guyon)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Alcohol Sales Regulation - N.C. - Strip Clubs North Carolina's revision of its statutes regulating alcohol sales in strip clubs passes constitutional muster, and the 4th Circuit...

U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia: December 25, 2006.(Harrison v. Federal Bureau of Prisons)(Termini v. Life Insurance Company of North America)(Government of the Dominican Republic v. AES Aggregate Services Ltd.)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Federal Procurement - Mapping Contracts - Surveyor's Ethics Rules A group of trade associations that represent professional surveyors and engineers can sue the Federal...

U.S. District Court of Western Virginia: December 25, 2006.(Sayre Enterprises Inc. v. Allstate Ins. Co.)(Flickinger v. E.I. DuPont deNemours and Co.)(Dawson v. Brandsberg)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Discovery - Attorney- Client Privilege A plaintiff who settled unfair competition and intellectual property claims against defendant Allstate's policyholder in state court,...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: December 25, 2006.(Nolan v. Va. Dep't of Corrections)(Salaam v. Commonwealth)(Palmer v. Commonwealth)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Public Employment - Grievance - Authority Cited Two correctional officers who filed grievances against the Department of Corrections alleging unsafe work environment, hostile...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: December 25, 2006.(Blake Construction Poole and Kent A Joint Venture v. Upper Occoquan Sewage Authority)(Fell v. Leiser & Associates PLLC)(French v. Garraghty)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Construction Dispute - Prejudgment Interest Award - Timely Compensation For Loss A circuit court orders post-judgment interest on the entire award of more than $1 million...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Surgeon prevails in second trial in Norfolk.
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff, age 38, sought out Dr. M in April 1998 to see what additional improvement could be made to plaintiff's bilateral cleft palate and lip that had been repaired as a youngster. The evidence...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Virginia auto accident case settles for $150K.(Doyle v. Johnson)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was injured on Oct. 19, 2004, when a tractor-trailer rig struck the rear of his stopped vehicle. The plaintiff was about to make a left turn across traffic just outside of Wakefield and...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Virginia widow gets $1 for solace.(Wright v. Minnicks, et al.)(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This was a retrial of a jury verdict entered on March 28, 2006, in the amount of approximately $940,000 for loss of income and personal services; $20,000 for hospital and funeral expenses cumulated in...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: State Farm Insurance gets arson verdict in 48 minutes.(Sexton v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff's home, which included a basement apartment, burned in the middle of the night on Nov. 12, 2004. Plaintiff's tenant was out of the basement apartment because plaintiff had asked her to...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Virginia case over loss of eye during arrest is settled.(Thomas Frazier v. City of Norfolk Police Department )
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff Thomas Frazier was caught in an undercover sting for selling one narcotic pill in the City of Norfolk. After realizing he was in legal jeopardy, he ran and hid under a bush in the middle of a...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Virginia auto accident settles for policy limits of $1M.(Larry Winstead v. Henry's Wrecker Service of Fairfax County Inc. )
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On March 5, 2005, Larry Winstead, 56, was struck from the rear by the driver of a Henry's Wrecker Service tow truck which was trying to make a lane change. Mr. Winstead's vehicle had come to a stop due...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Virginia police shooting results in $4.5M verdict.
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff's decedent was a 26-year-old African-American father of two children. On the morning of his death, police were called to his apartment to investigate reports of glass breaking and a black male...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Virginia auto accident case settles for $125K.(Shepherd v. Sandhu)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff was rearended by defendants, both sisters, who were following each other. Plaintiff's car was also pushed into a vehicle in front and sustained approximately $16,000 in property damage. Both...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Virginia trip-and-fall case settles for $150K.(Honesty v. P & H Investments Inc.)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This case was previously tried to a defense verdict but was successfully appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia, which reversed the verdict based upon introduction into evidence of prior alcohol use...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Virginia construction counterclaimant prevails in case.(Tristate Development & Construction Inc. et al. v. Kwang-ho Choo)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This case arose from allegations of breach of contracts for demolition and construction of a residential home owned by Kwang-ho Choo in Bethesda, Md. Tristate Development & Construction, Inc. filed a...

Verdicts & Settlements December 25, 2006: Virginia auto death case settled for $2.4M.(Brief article)
December 25, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The case involved a collision between a tractor-trailer and an automobile occupied by the plaintiff's decedent. Plaintiff's decedent was killed instantly. The defendant driver testified that he...