Virginia Lawyers Weekly articles from December 2008

Virginia Lawyers Weekly archives from December 2008

Rapid Response: Virginia firms gear up, offer new services to help clients through tough times.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth The business of law is no more immune to the economic downtown than any other enterprise, but Virginia law firms say they are weathering the storm, in part by offering special services that meet the needs of clients in...

Virginia Lawyers in the News: December 1, 2008.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Sarah Rodriguez Two attorneys have joined the law firm of Sands, Anderson, Marks & Miller. Tania M. L. Saylor has joined the business and professional litigation practice team in the firm's McLean office. Saylor focuses her...

A trip to Southside Virginia: Downtown diners and courthouse cafes.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth Preparing for an out-of-town hearing or trial should involve more than just legal research and argument outlines, according to traveling lawyers from around Virginia. Several attorneys we contacted said knowing the...

FDIC will back full amount of IOLTA accounts.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will cover the full amount of lawyers' IOLTA accounts, under new regulations adopted Nov. 21. The regulations are part of the agency's transaction account guarantee program, which...

Fairfax County judge sanctions lawyer for ignoring res judicata.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper A Fairfax County judge has sanctioned a Vienna lawyer for filing a lawsuit that he said the lawyer should have known would be barred by res judicata. Judge Jonathan C. Thacher ordered Lawrence A. Katz to pay more...

Blindsided: P.I. lawyers caught unaware of new Medicare rules, 'side aside' practices could be on the way.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth Personal injury lawyers are bracing for more paperwork and possible delays in claim payments when the latest round of Medicare regulations kicks in next year. A few observers are even warning that plaintiffs' lawyers...

Verdicts & Settlements December 1, 2008: Workout results in breakdown of muscle protein.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly $300,000 Verdict Plaintiff, a 25-year-old male, was on active duty in the U.S. Navy and in reasonably good physical condition. He was entreated at a gym to engage in a session of CrossFit exercises. He was...

Verdicts & Settlements December 1, 2008: Stop-sign collision injures knee, requires surgery.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly $220,000 Settlement The plaintiff, a 49-year-old male, was struck broadside by the defendant, who ran a stop sign. The impact flipped the plaintiff's vehicle. The plaintiff refused medical treatment on the...

Verdicts & Settlements December 1, 2008: Woman defrauds financier by falsifying invoices.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly $709,920.19 Verdict Brenda Wood was the principal in a business that installed cable for cable television. The Tignors began factoring her accounts. Wood falsified invoices causing the Tignors to advance her...

Verdicts & Settlements December 1, 2008: Driver ejected, dies in rollover of vehicle.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly $2,500,000 Settlement The plaintiff was traveling on Route 7 in Fairfax County when his vehicle was struck by the defendant at a high rate of speed. The impact caused the plaintiff's vehicle to roll, and he...

Verdicts & Settlements December 1, 2008: Preschool administrator suffers injury in Stafford wreck.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly $175,000 Settlement Plaintiff was a 42-year-old preschool owner and administrator. The accident occurred on Route 17 in Stafford County when the defendant pulled out from a stop sign. There was no liability...

4th Circuit: U.S. v. Goforth.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Presentencing Detention - 'Exceptional Reasons' - Judicial Officer A federal district court judge is a judicial officer who can determine whether a drug defendant meets the exceptional reasons test under...

4th Circuit: Worden v. SunTrust Banks Inc.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Rights - Bank Employee - Lie Detector Test - EPPA The 4th Circuit applies the Price Waterhouse mixed motive test to a bank employee's claim that his firing after he failed police-administered lie detector tests...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Labriola v. Southeast Milk Inc.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Personal Jurisdiction - Va. Long-Arm Statute - Guaranty Execution An Alexandria U.S. District Court does not have personal jurisdiction over a Florida corporation, a former investor in the Flagship...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Berry v. Gutierrez.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment Discrimination - Race - Patent Examiner - Settlement Agreement An Alexandria U.S. District Court dismisses plaintiff's action alleging defendant agency breached a settlement agreement in her suit asserting...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Berry v. Gutierrez.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment Discrimination - Race - Agency Action - Patent Examiner A plaintiff who alleges breach of an agreement settling her claim that she was terminated as a Patent Examiner because of race discrimination, and...

Charlottesville U.S. District Court: Miller v. Dogwood Valley Citizens Ass'n.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Attorneys - Sanctions Under Rule 11 - RICO Complaint A Charlottesville U.S. District Court denies sanctions under Fed. R. Civ. P. 11 to defendant civic association who contends plaintiffs and their lawyer knew when...

Roanoke U.S. District Court: Armendarez v. ABB Inc.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Negligence - Slip & Fall - Statutory Employee An employee of a trucking company who fell off a ladder as he attempted to use a tarpaulin to cover a load of transformers to be delivered for defendant manufacturer was...

Roanoke U.S. District Court: Taylor v. County of Pulaski.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment Discrimination - Race - Title VII - Garbageman An African-American garbageman has alleged sufficient material facts related to his hostile environment claim based on a white truck driver's calling him a n-...

Harrisonburg U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Hooker v. Educ. Credit Mgmt. Corp.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Bankruptcy - Debt Discharge - Student Loan - Mental Illness With further fact-finding as directed by the district court, this Harrisonburg U.S. Bankruptcy Court holds that debtor, who suffers from paranoid...

Lynchburg U.S. Bankruptcy Court: In re Clauden.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Bankruptcy - Plan Confirmation - Ch. 13 - Vehicle Surrender A debtor's payments to the Chapter 13 trustee on the 2000 Lincoln LS that she originally intended to retain and the trustee should forward those payments to...

Roanoke U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Comer v. U.S. Social Security Adm.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Bankruptcy - Social Security - Setoff Recovery - Tax Refund A Roanoke U.S. Bankruptcy Court denies debtors' request for recovery of a setoff by the U.S. Social Security Administration of debtors' 2006 federal tax...

Va. Court of Appeals: Masonite Holdings Inc. v. Cubbage.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Workers' Comp - Limitations - Claim By Letter - Slip & Fall A truck driver who slipped and fell on ice while making a delivery in February 2004, and who initially received workers' comp for his scalp laceration and...

Norfolk Circuit Court: Stanley v. GEICO.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Negligence - P.I. Suit - Lawyer Lien - Notice A lawyer who claims a lien on a client's personal injury settlement may amend his pleadings to assert that he gave written notice of his claim of statutory lien under Va....

Norfolk Circuit Court: Doddy v. Zedd Auctioneers Ltd.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Real Estate - Contract - Deposit With Auctioneer A real estate buyer proved fraud by showing defendant auctioneer put the buyer's deposits in a trust account and promptly wrote checks covering his own expenses for...

Fairfax Circuit Court: Lee v. Taurus Enterprises Inc.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Real Estate - Fraud - Easement Disclosure - Neighbors' Contract Two sisters whose contractor neighbor on the adjacent lot agreed to build a house on the sisters' lot, but who allegedly did not learn of an easement...

Fairfax Circuit Court: Jacokes v. Cottrell.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Attorneys - Legal Malpractice - Divorce - Expert Opinion A Fairfax Circuit Court refuses to dismiss an unhappy husband's legal malpractice suit against his divorce lawyer because plaintiff husband does not have an...

Fairfax Circuit Court: Gray Diversified Asset Mgmt. Inc. v. Canellis.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Res Judicata - Claim-Splitting - Sanctions A real estate financing company that lost a 2006 suit with a former business associate has its later suit against the associate dismissed as barred by res...

Norfolk Circuit Court: Smith v. Dixit.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Medical Malpractice - Expert Witnesses - Limit In this failure-to-diagnose Lyme disease case in which plaintiff has hired three experts and defendant has eight, including five experts on the standard of care, a...

Fairfax Circuit Court: Cintas Corp. No. 2 v. Transcontinental Granite Inc.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Discovery - Real Estate Sale - Environmental Contamination In this litigation over a seller's remediation efforts on a parcel of Richmond real estate, a Fairfax Circuit Court says the seller must...

Verdicts & Settlements December 8, 2008: Elderly patient injured in fall due to lack of intervention.
December 8, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Elderly in-patient fell due to lack of interventions. [08-T-195] Type of Action: Medical malpractice Name of Case: Confidential Court: Newport News Circuit Court Verdict or Settlement: Settlement...

Virginia Lawyers in the News: December 15, 2008.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Sarah Rodriguez Robert B. Chip Delano Jr., a shareholder and member of the risk management practice group at Sands Anderson Marks & Miller, received the Defense Research Institute Community Service Award. Delano was recognized by...

Virginia Bar Assn., Virginia Trial Lawyers Assn. join forces in 'Family Law Coalition'.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper The Virginia Bar Association and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association are joining forces to restructure the VBA Coalition Committee on Family Law Legislation. The VBA formed the coalition in 1996 to bring bar...

Chesterfield clerk sues chief judge of Supreme Court of Virginia.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper Chesterfield County Circuit Clerk Judy L. Worthington has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Virginia against Chief Judge Michael C. Allen. Worthington has asked for writ of prohibition and a writ of mandamus...

Virginia bank can't be tagged for handling escrow.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth In a sign of tough times for the real estate development market, investors in a multi-story lakefront condo project are battling with the bank that paid out their investment money to now-bankrupt developers. The...

Legislators to Virginia high court: do not tell us what to do.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper You can't give us information about judges and order us not to disclose it, members of the House Courts of Justice Committee told representatives of the Supreme Court of Virginia last Thursday. At issue are judicial...

Looking Back at 2008: Top Cases for Va. Lawyers.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Jury trials are down, law firm hiring has slowed. Maybe even pro se plaintiffs will begin to back off. Still, people are finding there are times when they have to tell it to the judge. And it may be a story the...

Looking Back at 2008: top news: mental health, fights over judges top Va. legal news.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper A major overhaul of state mental health law. Political infighting over the appointment of state and federal judges. A quick, decisive end to the discussion of mandatory legal malpractice. Those are just...

Commentary: a look back at 2008....
December 15, 2008... Byline: Paul Fletcher 2008 very shortly will be in the history book, and it's unlikely that this will go down as anyone's favorite year. Economic uncertainty remains the watchword of the day, although lawyers and the legal profession...

Verdicts & Settlements Dec. 15, 2008: Discrimination alleged in appointment of high school principal.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly $200,000 verdict. Pamela Hartnett, 47-year-old white female and 20-year employee of the school system, applied for the upcoming vacancy of principal of Brunswick County High School in April of 2006....

Verdicts & Settlements Dec. 15, 2008: Teen gets punitives from drunken driver.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly $280,764.98 verdict. Plaintiff, a 16-year-old female high school student, was driving home when her vehicle was hit head on by the defendant's vehicle, which had traveled 495 feet through the median and...

Verdicts & Settlements Dec. 15, 2008: Retirement benefits an issue in damages from collision.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly $300,000 settlement. On April 13, 2004, the plaintiff, a US Naval Officer, was traveling south on Ocean Highway in Somerset County, Md., on his way to Norfolk Naval Base when a tractor-trailer attempted...

4th Circuit Court: Grissom v. The Mills Corp.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Corporate - SOX Whistleblower - Attorney's Fees - Rule 68 Offer An employee who accepted defendant corporation's $130,000 Rule 68 offer of judgment on his Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower case was a prevailing...

4th Circuit Court: Platone v. U.S. Dep't of Labor.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Corporate - SOX Whisteblower Claim - Fraud - Billing Discrepancy In this Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower case, the 4th Circuit affirms the Department of Labor decision that plaintiff, a former airline official, was...

4th Circuit Court: U.S. v. Williams.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Search & Seizure - Defective Search Warrants - Good Faith Exception On interlocutory appeal, the 4th Circuit reverses district court orders suppressing evidence found in the residences of two drug conspiracy...

4th Circuit Court: S.C. Wildlife Federation v. Limehouse.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Environmental - State Agency - Sovereign Immunity The director of the South Carolina Department of Transportation cannot invoke 11th Amendment sovereign immunity to have a court dismiss this suit by the South...

4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Qorvis Communications LLC v. Wilson.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Contract - Arbitration - Political Consultant - Implied Agreement A political consultant who breached his employment contract can't overturn a $366,037 judgment against him by claiming the contract's arbitration...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: U.S. v. 1866.75 Board Feet and 11 Doors & Casings.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Civil Forfeiture - Exotic Wood - 'Household Effects' A couple returning from State Department employment in Nicaragua cannot claim the several tons of wood from an endangered species of...

Richmond U.S. District Court: Brooks v. Vassar.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Rights - Attorney's Fees - 'Prevailing Party' After seven years of litigation that led to an injunction against enforcement of Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board regulations that discriminated...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: U.S. v. Miranda.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Sentencing - Perjury - Gang Accusation A defendant convicted of making false statements to a grand jury about his membership in the MS-13 gang, knew that he was lying to the grand jury investigating...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Whitehead v. Macy's Inc.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Recusal Motion - Bias Claim A designer who claimed defendant Macy's stole his idea for a clothing line and ad campaign inspired by jazz singer Josephine Baker has his second motion for recusal...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Hamilton v. Paulson.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment Discrimination - Title VII - Race - Venue A pro se plaintiff's suit alleging race discrimination in violation of Title VII arising from the IRS's denial of certain job positions to plaintiff is...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Lee v. Space Island Group Inc.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Default Judgment - Corporate Defendant An Alexandria U.S. District Court accepts a magistrate judge's recommendation to enter default judgment of $117,540 for plaintiff consultant and against a...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Rossmann v. Lazarus.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Consumer Protection - Home Sale - Incarcerated Seller In this suit filed by a home seller who used a lawyer, real estate agent and a power of attorney granted to his uncle to sell his home while he was...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Wesley v. Arlington County, Va.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment Discrimination - Title VII - Fire Captain Promotion - Race & Gender Although plaintiff asserts she performed well in a written exam used to assess qualifications for promotion to captain in the...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Blanding v. Hayden.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment Discrimination - Age - Title VII - Gender - ADA An Alexandria U.S. District Court grants the CIA partial dismissal of plaintiff employee's claim alleging disability discrimination, and summary judgment...

Charlottesville U.S. District Court: Cominelli v. The Rector & Visitors of the University of Va.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Tort - Business Torts - Research Hospital Chief - Audit A former medical academic at the University of Virginia, who alleges he was unfairly demoted from administrative posts and that actions by defendant...

Charlottesville U.S. District Court: Cheatle v. U.S.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Taxation - Employment Taxes - Penalty Recovery Although a secretary/treasurer for a wholesale greenhouse business claims he could not write checks for over $3,000 without a co-signature of the company president,...

Lynchburg U.S. District Court: U.S. v. $15,716 in U.S. Currency.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Forfeiture - Requested Return A defendant whose convictions for drug violations, conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise have been affirmed by the appeals court, which also affirmed the related...

Roanoke U.S. District Court: Scott v. Branch Banking & Trust Co.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Creditor's Rights - Escrow Account - Waterfront Project - Bank 'Customer' Although a Roanoke U.S. District Court agrees a bank doesn't need a written agreement to assume the duties of an escrow agent, plaintiff...

Abingdon U.S. District Court: Buchanan County v. Blankenship.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Municipal - Bribery - Bid-Rigging - Damages An Abingdon U.S. District Court grants defendants' motions for judgment as a matter of law overturning the jury verdict awarding $250,000 in damages against each in an...

Lynchburg U.S. District Court: U.S. v. $15,716 in U.S. Currency.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Forfeiture - Venue Change A Lynchburg U.S. District Court refuses to transfer to another federal court a convicted defendant's request for return of cash and other property seized by the government in...

Lynchburg U.S. District Court: U.S. v. Jennings.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Search & Seizure - Traffic Stop - Reasonable Suspicion - Passenger Pat-Down Police had reasonable, articulable suspicion to stop a vehicle, a Lynchburg U.S. District Court says, after observing a man for whom...

Danville U.S. District Court: Blevins v. Suarez.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment - College Teacher - FLSA - Equal Pay Act A former faculty member at Mountain Empire Community College who faced criticism in his performance as administrator of a grant to develop web-based distance...

Charlottesville U.S. District Court: U.S. v. Anderson.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Sentence Reduction - Drug Defendant A Charlottesville U.S. District Court grants a drug defendant's motion to reduce his sentence from 135 months to 120 months, over the government's objections...

Lynchburg U.S. District Court: U.S. v. Ledingham.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Felon In Possession - Brady Disclosure - Property Claim Form A Lynchburg U.S. District Court says a defendant convicted of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon cannot overturn his conviction...

Abingdon U.S. District Court: U.S. v. Jones.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Detainers - IAD - 'Anti-Shuttling' Provision - Reprosecution An Abingdon U.S. District Court denies defendant's motion to dismiss charges against him after the court's earlier decision to dismiss a...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Stacy v. Stacy.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Domestic Relations - Mortgage Payments - PSA - Spousal Support - Cohabitation The en banc Court of Appeals reverses a trial court order terminating husband's obligation under the parties' property settlement...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Commonwealth v. Conyngham.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Search & Seizure - Probable Cause - Cybertip - Probable Cause The Court of Appeals upholds an order suppressing evidence resulting from a search of defendant's residence where the search warrant was issued in...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Sourdiff v. Commonwealth.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Search & Seizure - Drug Possession - Plain View A police officer responding to a domestic disturbance, who went to talk to a tenant in the home as a possible witness to the disturbance, did not violate defendant...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Holmes v. Commonwealth.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Murder - Insanity Defense A defendant's first-degree murder and related convictions are affirmed by the Court of Appeals, despite defendant's claim that the trial court erred in granting the...

Roanoke City Circuit Court: Carilion Medical Center v. Ady.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Creditor's Rights - Hospital Bill - Limitations - Open Account A hospital-drafted contract that provided a woman's bill for medical services was payable in full in 90 days following discharge was not an open...

Roanoke County Circuit Court: Commonwealth v. Pruett.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Speedy Trial Act - Waiver Two burglary defendants waived their right to a preliminary hearing, and even assuming the continuous custody of both defendants, they were in custody only 126 days prior to...

Bedford County Circuit Court: Barrick v. Peters.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Negligence - Drunken Driving - Leaving Scene A plaintiff injured by an alleged drunken driver who woke up as a deputy was directing traffic around his car, drove off fast and struck another vehicle with a family...

Sussex County Circuit Court: Epperson v. Department of Corrections.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment - Grievance - DOC Employee - Involuntary Resignation Under a test used by the 4th Circuit for constructive discharge, a Sussex County Circuit Court holds that a state prison watch commander who thought...

Roanoke County Circuit Court: Ragan v. Ragan.
December 15, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Domestic Relations - Custody - School Choice In this appeal of a JDR court order, a Roanoke County Circuit Court holds that the JDR order permanently changing custody is void ab initio. The argument between...

4th Circuit rules boot camp counts for career-offender status.
December 18, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins Everette Antwon Burrell caught a break with a boot-camp sentence early in his criminal career, but that sentence came back to haunt him years later. Burrell was sentenced to boot camp for a 1993 drug conviction....

Virginia Lawyers in the News: December 22, 2008.
December 22, 2008... Byline: Sarah Rodriguez Five attorneys have joined the Virginia Beach office Williams Mullen as associates. David G. Boyce focuses his practice on commercial litigation. Boyce previously served as a clerk for a federal judge in...

Virginia House Bill 1640 would require disclosure of officers, partners in deed.
December 22, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth Real estate lawyers are taking a dim view of a bill introduced for the 2009 Virginia General Assembly session designed to force disclosure of key members of corporations, LLCs, partnerships, and business trusts when...

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's appointees appear safe for getting full terms.
December 22, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper Concerns about Republican opposition to judicial appointments by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine appeared to be unfounded on Dec. 11, when members of the House and Senate Courts of Justice Committees interviewed about 60...

Virginia teen gets punitives of $200K from drunk.
December 22, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth A Harrisonburg lawyer is battling to keep the $200,000 punitive damages he won this fall for the victim of a crash caused by a drunken driver. The verdict was returned Oct. 31 by a jury in Rockingham County, one of...

Pittsylvania County judge awards elderly man over $1M for his daughter scamming him.
December 22, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth In an unusual civil lawsuit arising from a case of elder abuse, a Pittsylvania County judge has awarded more than a million dollars to an 84-year-old illiterate retired farmer who claimed his daughter scammed him out of...

Verdicts and Settlements December 22, 2008: Med-Mal suit settles for $1.5M.
December 22, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff, a 15-year-old high school student, was playing basketball in the gym when he landed awkwardly and hyper-extended his knee. Plaintiff was transported to the emergency department at the local...

Verdicts and Settlements December 22, 2008: Va. jury rules for defendant physician in tort claim.
December 22, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Plaintiff, a 58-year-old woman, returned for a follow-up visit with the defendant physician, an ear, nose and throat specialist, with continued sinus symptoms. The defendant testified that during her visit,...