Virginia Lawyers Weekly articles from January 2009

Virginia Lawyers Weekly archives from January 2009

Virginia customer wins $1M in suit against Web developer.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth The disappointed customer of a Web site developer won a $1 million verdict last month in the first case decided under the Virginia Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act. An Alexandria Circuit Court jury on...

Nine seek a seat on Virginia Court of Appeals.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper Circuit Judges Burke F. McCahill of Leesburg and John E. Wetsel Jr. of Winchester are among a group of nine candidates who have told the Virginia State Bar that they are interested in a seat on the Virginia Court of...

Costly mold: Loudoun couple awarded $4.75M for mold injuries.(Virginia)
January 5, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper A Loudoun County Circuit Court jury has returned verdicts totaling $4.75 million for a couple who contended that mold in their $900,000 home sickened them and rendered their house unlivable. Paul and Wendy Meng...

Verdicts & Settlements January 5, 2009: Mold causes illness in home in Loudoun County.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly $4,750,000 Verdict. Paul and Wendy Meng purchased a new home from The Drees Company in November 2005 for $900,000. During construction, the Mengs noticed that the house was not being protected from the...

Verdicts & Settlements January 5, 2009: Doctors fail to diagnose severity of stab wound.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Defense Verdict. On June 27, 2004, after a night of partying, the decedent and his best friend got into a dispute over whether the decedent would drive while inebriated from Hampton back home to Atlanta...

4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Champion v. Black & Decker.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment - ERISA - Disability - Plan Administrator - Conflict Of Interest Although an ERISA plan administrator had a conflict of interest because the plan sponsor, Black & Decker,iii served in the dual role of...

4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Palisades Collections LLC v. Shorts v. AT&T Mobility LLC.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Removal Jurisdiction - Joined Defendant - Counterclaim In this case of first impression involving a suit to collect $794 in unpaid cell phone service contract charges, the 4th Circuit holds...

4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Moseley v. Branker.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Habeas Corpus - Brady Violation The en banc 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a North Carolina defendant's capital conviction and death sentence for the murder of a woman he picked up at a...

4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Champion v. Black & Decker.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment - ERISA - Disability - Plan Administrator - Conflict Of Interest Although an ERISA plan administrator had a conflict of interest because the plan sponsor, Black & Decker, served in the dual role of...

Norfolk U.S. District Court: Galustian v. Peter.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Immunity Waiver - Iraqi Legal Process A Norfolk U.S. District Court dismisses, without prejudice, this action against a defendant who has claimed immunity from legal process under Order No. 17...

Norfolk U.S. District Court: Phillips v. BJ's Wholesale Club Inc.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Removal - Remand - Attorney's Fees A Norfolk U.S. District Court grants defendant wholesale club's motion to remand to state court a former employee's suit alleging the club was negligent in...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Fletcher v. Pizza Hut of America Inc.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Negligence - Auto Accident - Pizza Delivery Driver - Restaurant Liability An Alexandria U.S. District Court denies summary judgment to defendant Pizza Hut in this auto accident case alleging liability on the...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Houston v. URS Corp.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Labor - FLSA - Housing Inspectors - Overtime Pay An Alexandria U.S. District Court grants certification of a collective action by federal disaster housing inspectors for overtime pay under the Fair Labor...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Adams v. Pennsylvania Nat'l Mut. Cas. Ins. Co.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Insurance - Auto Liability - Transmission Shop Policy - Employee Accident An auto liability carrier for a transmission shop has no liability for a judgment obtained by a plaintiff injured in an accident with a...

Roanoke U.S. District Court: Phillips v. Wythe County Community Hospital.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment - ERISA - COBRA - Retired Hospital Employees Retired employees of a hospital that later sold its assets to a successor can the hospital successor holding company for COBRA violations, but their claims...

Lynchburg U.S. District Court: Estate of John Cecil Spinner v. Anthem Health Plans of Va.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment - ERISA - Group Health Insurance - Brain Hemorrhage The estate of a former employee of Commercial Glass & Plastics Inc. that is seeking coverage for a hospital stay to treat the employee's...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Jones v. Commonwealth.(reasonable suspicion for an investigative stop)
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Search & Seizure - Fourth Amendment - Stop and Frisk A police officer lacked sufficient facts to support a reasonable suspicion that the defendant was engaged in criminal activity where the defendant...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Crawford v. Commonwealth.(forfeiture by wrongdoing doctrine)
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Evidence - Confrontation Clause - Victim's Affidavit The Court of Appeals rejects the trial court's application of the forfeiture-by-wrongdoing doctrine and holds that admission of a murder victim's...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Caprino v. Commonwealth.(defendant's silence prior to arrest)
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Impeachment - Prior Silence Where a detective testified that the defendant declined to be interviewed after his arrest, and where the record fails to show the defendant's silence was in response to any...

Fairfax Circuit Court: In re: Multi-Circuit Episcopal Church Property Litigation.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Real Estate - Episcopal Church Property - Breakaway Congregations A Fairfax Circuit Court issues additional rulings favoring congregations in Northern Virginia that seek to split from the mainline Episcopal...

Roanoke City Circuit Court: DCSE ex rel. Charlotte Stone Abediyi v. Ferguson.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Domestic Relations - Child Support - DCSE Petition - Nonsuit A Roanoke City Circuit Court grants a nonsuit to the Division of Child Support Enforcement in this action for child support, even though respondent...

Lobbyist Vicki Iseman files $27M suit against New York Times.
January 5, 2009... Byline: Paul Fletcher and Alan Cooper Lawyers for Washington lobbyist Vicki L. Iseman have filed a $27 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times for a February article about Iseman and her relationship with Sen. John McCain. ...

Covenant not to compete unenforceable, Supreme Court of Virginia holds.
January 9, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper A covenant not to compete in an employment contract created an ambiguity in the agreement and cannot be enforced by the drafter, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled today in an unpublished order. A physician signed...

Losing plaintiff would pay for jury under Senate proposal in Virginia.
January 9, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth In Virginia, the taxpayers pick up the tab for civil litigants who exercise their right to a jury trial. One Virginia senator wants to make a small change in that practice. Sen. Ralph Smith, R-Daleville, has...

Commentary: Web 2.0 and the law firm Web site: blogging.(part 2)
January 12, 2009... Byline: Sarah Rodriguez As you know by now, Web 2.0 is changing the Internet, and it's important for law firms to keep up with the trends. The previous installment of this series offered some tips on enhancing your firm's Web site...

$750K verdict scored in Amherst County.
January 12, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth An Amherst County jury returned a $750,000 verdict last week for a woman who suffered multiple injuries in a 2005 head-on collision that fatally injured the other driver. Plaintiff's lawyer Peter A. Katt of Roanoke...

Federal judge in Richmond dismisses lawyer's defamation suit in blown appeal case.(Virginia)
January 12, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper A federal judge in Richmond has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an attorney who contended he was defamed by an allegation that he blew a deadline in the appeal of an $8.3 million judgment. The federal case is one of...

Virginia med-mal damages cap fight held over until 2010 legislative session.
January 12, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth Despite the introduction of a bill to boost the Virginia medical malpractice damages cap, it looks like the fight over a cap increase will be delayed until the 2010 legislative session. Legislation introduced for...

Norfolk federal magistrate judge rules bills discharged in bankruptcy can't be used.(Virginia)
January 12, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth In a ruling hailed by personal injury defense lawyers, a Norfolk federal magistrate judge has rejected an injured motorist's effort to claim medical bills that were discharged in bankruptcy court. Wesley Payne...

Norfolk U.S. District Court Judge Davis says buyer's due diligence scuttles fraud claims.(Virginia)
January 12, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins An accountant who did his own due diligence before buying a Chesapeake accounting firm cannot blame the seller for the buyer's failure to uncover issues he said led to the loss of the firm's largest client. The...

Chesterfield Circuit Court: Farmers Insurance Exchange v. Saunders.(automobile insurance)(Virginia)
January 12, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Insurance - Liability - 'Resident Relative' - Notice A young man killed in an auto accident who was staying temporarily with his parents until he could move into a friend's house was not a resident relative and...

Commentary: Web 2.0 and the law firm Web site: blogging.
January 12, 2009... Byline: Sarah Rodriguez As you know by now, Web 2.0 is changing the Internet, and it's important for law firms to keep up with the trends. The previous installment of this series offered some tips on enhancing your firm's Web site...

Wythe County judge resigns.(Virginia)
January 13, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper If House Bill 1753 was aimed at M. Keith Blankenship, the juvenile and domestic relations district judge in Wythe County who was twice convicted of traffic offenses last year, it won't be necessary. Blankenship took...

Virginia Court of Appeals upholds jail terms for lawyers.
January 13, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper The full Virginia Court of Appeals split sharply today on the precision required to preserve for appeal challenges to summary contempt convictions. The result is that two attorneys and an assistant who was a...

Salem, Roanoke lawyers help stranded exchange students.(Virginia)
January 16, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth A handful of sympathetic lawyers in Salem and Roanoke have managed to save the day for three Peruvian college students stuck without jobs in Virginia while on an exchange program. As reported by The Roanoke Times,...

Supreme Court of Virginia bans use of 'unavoidable accident' jury instruction.
January 16, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth The Supreme Court of Virginia today outlawed the use of the "unavoidable accident" jury instruction in personal injury trials. Writing for a unanimous court in Hancock-Underwood v. Knight, Justice Donald W. Lemons...

Jury allowed to consider both death and survival claims.(Virginia)
January 16, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth The plaintiffs' bar is the winner today in a case where the defense sought to force a plaintiff to elect between a personal injury claim and a wrongful death claim for the estate of a man who died after acquiring an...

Supreme Court of Virginia sends job defamation claim back to jury.
January 16, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins An executive who said she was defamed during a performance evaluation gets another shot at a jury, in today's ruling from the Supreme Court of Virginia in Hyland v. Raytheon Technical Services. In March 2007, the...

Chesterfield clerk's suit against judge dismissed.(Virginia)
January 16, 2009... Byline: Paul Fletcher And the winner in the latest round between Chesterfield County Circuit Clerk Judy Worthington and Chesterfield Chief Judge Michael C. Allen is... Allen. This morning the Supreme Court of Virginia entered a...

Supreme Court of Virginia lays down law for admissibility of evidence obtained by drug dogs.
January 16, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Challenges to drug dog searches are as common as the canines themselves. In a case of first impression, the Supreme Court of Virginia today lays down the law for admissibility of evidence obtained as a result of...

No First Amendment protection for man who disrupted council meeting, Supreme Court of Virginia rules.
January 16, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth A Roanoke man who was booted from a city council meeting and convicted of disorderly conduct gets no relief today from the Supreme Court of Virginia. Duane Howard had earned a reputation as a government gadfly, a...

No jury costs for first nonsuit, Supreme Court of Virginia says.
January 16, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth Even though the trial judge remarked that imposing jury costs on a nonsuiting plaintiff was "pretty standard here in this court," the Supreme Court of Virginia finds any such jury fee unwarranted under Virginia law. ...

Supreme Court of Virginia revives claim for death of child.
January 16, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth The Supreme Court of Virginia has given a family a new chance at a medical malpractice claim for a child who died of whooping cough after a hospital emergency doctor failed to admit him for treatment. In Jackson v....

House delays seating Alexandria winner again.
January 16, 2009... Byline: Paul Fletcher Charniele Herring was the certified winner of the special election held Tuesday for the seat of ex-Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria, who resigned to focus on his race for governor. But House Republicans declined to seat...

Virginia Lawyers in the News: January 19, 2009.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Sarah Rodriguez Peter A. Gambardella has joined Spotts Fain as an associate in the business section of the firm's Richmond office, where he focuses on commercial, business and real estate transactions. Gambardella earned his...

Senators from Virginia seek input on federal vacancies.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper U.S. Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner have asked statewide bar groups to submit recommendations for judicial vacancies on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and in the Eastern District of Virginia by March 1. The...

Virginia State Bar would no longer handle non-lawyer CRESPA agents.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth Nearly one thousand title insurance agents and companies in Virginia would no longer have to register with the Virginia State Bar as CRESPA settlement agents under a bill introduced for the 2009 General Assembly...

New Jersey company punished by Norfolk federal judge.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Peter Vieth A Norfolk federal judge has punished a New Jersey business for offering disingenuous and misleading excuses for missing a deadline to respond to a lawsuit. The same business also was hit with sanctions for issuing a...

Alexandria jury award lawyer-plaintiff $7M.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper An Alexandria jury has returned a $7 million medical-malpractice verdict for a lawyer who claimed he suffered a stroke after his doctor failed to diagnose a heart problem. Five weeks after undergoing a root canal...

Virginia Court of Appeals: 3 get bars' top nods.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper The Virginia State Bar and most other statewide bar groups have given their top ratings to Circuit Judges Burke F. McCahill of Loudoun County and John E. Wetsel Jr. of Winchester and to Leesburg attorney Alexander N....

Opening Round: Virginia's General Assembly begins with impasse.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Alan Cooper Whether members of the General Assembly will use the Supreme Court's judicial evaluation reports in reelecting judges remains in question after chairmen of the House and Senate Courts of Justice Committees said last...

Verdicts & Settlements January 19, 2009: 5-year-old drowns in fitness center pool in Centreville.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly This was a lawsuit for the wrongful death of Jana Hammad, a 5-year-old child from Clifton, who on Aug. 31, 2007, drowned in a swimming pool at the defendant's Life Time Fitness Center in Centreville. Jana...

Verdicts & Settlements January 19, 2009: Dump truck driver injured in Lorton landfill accident.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly On May 1, 2006, the plaintiff was operating a Roll-Off demolition truck and entered Lorton landfill to dump his load of construction debris. At the landfill he was directed by a Lorton landfill employee to...

Verdicts & Settlements January 19, 2009: Metro bus hits pedestrian in Washington crosswalk.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Ms. Doe, an honors paralegal at the Federal Trade Commission, waited to cross 7th Street Northwest, in Washington. Her light turned green, and she proceeded to walk across the street in the crosswalk, with...

Verdicts & Settlements January 19, 2009: Driver turning left fails to see motorcyclist.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Defendant attempted a left turn in front of the plaintiff, who was riding a motorcycle in Central Virginia. Defendant was cited for failure to yield the right of way and prepaid the ticket. Plaintiff...

Verdicts & Settlements January 19, 2009: Woman trips over speed bump in apt. complex parking lot.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff A 62-year-old female fell in the parking lot of an apartment complex while visiting her daughter who lived there. According to the plaintiff, she arrived at the complex at 10 p.m. and left at midnight....

Verdicts & Settlements January 19, 2009: Hood dislodges, blocks driver's view.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Sarah Rodriguez The plaintiff was traveling on Interstate 195 in Richmond at 9:15 a.m., when the hood of her car suddenly flew up and obstructed her view. According to the deposition testimony of several eyewitnesses, the...

Verdicts & Settlements January 19, 2009: Artery cut in surgery for meniscus tear.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Plaintiff was a 69-year-old woman who underwent an arthroscopic surgery of her right knee on Sept. 21, 2006, for a mild tear of her medial meniscus and removal of several posterior loose bodies. The...

4th Circuit: U.S. v. Dunphy.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Sentencing Reduction - Crack Amendment - Plea Agreement A defendant who pleaded guilty in 2003 to aiding and abetting crack cocaine possession with intent to distribute, and received the...

4th Circuit: U.S. v. Comstock.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - 'Sexually Dangerous Person' - Civil Commitment - Commerce Clause As the first appellate court in the nation to consider Congressional authority to enact 18 U.S.C. s. 4248, which purports to allow the...

4th Circuit: Yousuf v. Samantar.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Tort - Torture Victim Protection Act - Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act - Somali Natives Plaintiff natives of Somalia are not precluded from seeking damages from defendant Mohamed Ali Samantar for alleged acts of...

4th Circuit: U.S. v. Vankesteren.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Search & Seizure - Video Camera - Open Field The 4th Circuit rejects a Virginia farmer's claim that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated when state game and fishery agents installed a video surveillance...

4th Circuit: U.S. v. Hall.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Drug Trafficking - Double Jeopardy The 4th Circuit says two drug-trafficking defendants who went through two mistrials on related charges in the District of Columbia and a hung-jury mistrial in the...

4th Circuit: CFA Institute v. Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Procedure - Jurisdiction - Va. Long-Arm Statute - 'Transacting Business' The 4th Circuit upholds a 1998 default judgment in favor of the CFA Institute, a Charlottesville nonprofit association, against an...

4th Circuit: Mosere v. Mukasey.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Immigration - BIA - Power To Reopen - Abuse Of Discretion The Board of Immigration Appeals did not abuse its discretion in declining to reopen the case of this native of Sierra Leone who filed her petition more...

4th Circuit: U.S. v. Linder.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Habeas Corpus - Plea Bargain - Booker Claim A defendant who pleaded guilty to heroin conspiracy in 2004 knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to a direct appeal, and the 4th Circuit says he can't...

4th Circuit: Valladares v. Cordero.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Civil Rights - Excessive Force - Qualified Immunity - Domestic Dispute The 4th Circuit says a police officer who seized a 15-year-old who had gone outside his home while officers had attempted to mediate a...

Alexandria U.S. District Court: Microsoft Corp. v. Pronet Cyber Technologies Inc.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Intellectual Property - Counterfeit Labels - Computer Program In a case of apparent first impression for an Alexandria U.S. District Court, the court holds that a computer program seller who admitted he printed...

Richmond U.S. District Court: Bridges v. Reinhard.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Employment Discrimination - Disability - Chemical Allergy - Nurse A nurse at a geriatric hospital can try her ADA claim alleging defendant hospital failed to accommodate her severe disability from a respiratory...

Richmond U.S. District Court: Spencer v. American Int'l Group Inc.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Tort - Defamation - Appeal Dismissal - Transcript Filing A Richmond U.S. District Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an attorney who contended he was defamed by an allegation that he blew a deadline in the...

Roanoke U.S. District Court: Sawyers v. Big Lots Stores Inc.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Negligence - Discovery - Sanctions - Slip & Fall A Roanoke U.S. District Court refuses to dismiss this slip-and-fall suit against a Big Lots store as a sanction for the plaintiff's failure to provide both initial...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Scialdone v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Attorneys - Appeals - Rule 5A:18 - Plenary Contempt On rehearing en banc, the Court of Appeals says two lawyers and a law clerk failed to preserve their claim that the trial court deprived them of due process...

Virginia Court of Appeals: King v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Firearm Discharge - School Proximity The Court of Appeals affirms defendant's conviction for discharge of a firearm within 1,000 feet of the property line of a school, for firing a gun 795 feet from...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Wright v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Drug & Gun Possession - Simultaneous Constructive Possession A defendant who had seven grams of crack cocaine on his person when his vehicle was stopped can be convicted under Va. Code s. 18.2-308.4(C)...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Olson v. Olson.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Domestic Relations - Child Support Guidelines - Downward Deviation The Court of Appeals upholds a divorce court's order allowing a downward deviation of $300 per month from the statutory child support guidelines...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Lee v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Search & Seizure - Auto Search - Appeals - Rule 5A:18 A defendant convicted of cocaine possession cannot overturn her conviction on the ground that the search of her vehicle was illegal because the police...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Clark v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Assault - Overt Act There was insufficient evidence to convict defendant of assault based on her act of twice approaching a school bus and threatening to get the driver after calling her a bitch, and...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Hairston v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Statutory Burglary - Larcenous Intent A witness who observed defendant walk up the driveway and enter a house next door, which belonged to the witness's uncle whom the witness knew was not at home, and...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Barnes v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Out-Of-Court ID - Aggravated Malicious Wounding Although a shooting victim failed to identify defendant from a photo spread hours after the shooting, the Court of Appeals upholds admission of defendant...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Jenkins v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Robbery - Burglary - Firearm Use - Rule 5A:18 A defendant convicted of multiple burglary, robbery and firearm offenses has his convictions affirmed by the Court of Appeals, which cannot consider his...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Dennis v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Traffic Offenses - DUI - Local Ordinance A defendant's DUI conviction is affirmed by the Court of Appeals even though the commonwealth amended the warrant from the original charge under an allegedly invalid local...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Wythe County Community Hospital v. Shupe.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Workers' Comp - Arising Out Of - Injury By Accident The commission fully considered employer's argument that claimant injured herself during the simple act of sitting, rather than when she lifted a 20-pound...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Tran v. Commonwealth.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Criminal - Juror Strike - Newspaper Stories A prospective juror who stated she had been following defendant's case in newspaper stories and she might have information on the case different from evidence presented...

Virginia Court of Appeals: Fauntleroy v. Newport News Dep't of Social Servs.
January 19, 2009... Byline: Deborah Elkins Domestic Relations - Termination Of Parental Rights - Appeals - Rule 5A:18 Because a father did not make this argument in the court below, the Court of Appeals says the circuit court did not err in refusing to...