Virginia Lawyers Weekly articles from March 2008

Virginia Lawyers Weekly archives from March 2008

Virginia Lawyers in the News: March 10, 2008.
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Williams Mullen has elected seven Virginia and D.C. associates to partnership. In addition, the firm has elected Farhad Aghdami, David G. Barger and Stephen G. Test to the board of directors....

Ban of therapist testimony repealed by Assembly in Virginia.
March 10, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper Family law practitioners appear to have prevailed in their effort to win repeal of Virginia Code Sect. 20-124.3:1, which generally prohibits the admissibility of evidence related to a parent's mental health in custody...

Va. State Bar meeting is dominated by client protection.(Virginia)
March 10, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper Charles J. Zauzig III and Irving M. Blank minced no words at an October meeting of Virginia State Bar Council in their opposition to a proposal to have insurance companies notify the clients of personal injury attorneys...

Supreme Court of Virginia rules Univ. of Va. health foundation doesn't get immunity.(University of Virginia)
March 10, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper The University of Virginia Health Services Foundation operates as a charitable institution, but it does not operate in fact with a charitable purpose, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled unanimously last month. ...

Roanoke City Circuit Courts upholds $2M verdict in Roanoke mower case.
March 10, 2008... Byline: Deborah Elkins A Roanoke City Circuit judge has refused to set aside a $2 million jury award to the family of a 4-year-old boy who died in a riding lawn mower accident. In June 2006, the jury found that MTD Products Inc.,...

Va. Supreme Court of Virginia addresses criminal law issues.(Virginia)
March 10, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper A fractured Supreme Court of Virginia addressed three important criminal issues last month: * The admissibility of certificates of analysis from the state crime lab, * The good-faith exception to the...

Norfolk-based McGuireWoods to merge with big Charlotte firm.(Helms Mulliss & Wicker PLLC )
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff McGuireWoods LLP will have the third largest contingent of lawyers in Charlotte, N.C., when it absorbs Helms Mulliss & Wicker PLLC on March 31. The merger will give McGuireWoods about 160 lawyers...

Portsmouth attorney John H. Underwood III dies at 55.(Obituary)(Brief article)
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff John H. "Jay" Underwood III, the public defender in Portsmouth since the office opened in 1986, died March 2 after battling pancreatic cancer for 18 months. Underwood, 55, opened the office with...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: March 10, 2008.
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Tobacco Reform Act - Buyout Contracts - Standing A district court did not err in dismissing for lack of standing a complaint by two tobacco producers under the Fair and Equitable...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: March 10, 2008.(Virginia)
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Arbitration - Temporary Injunction In this dispute between plaintiff shipbuilder and eSCRUB Systems, a technology company with whom plaintiff has been developing a high energy...

U.S. District Court VA Western District Case Summaries: March 10, 2008.(Virginia)
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Social Security De Novo Review - General Objection A claimant who made only a general objection to a magistrate judge's entire report and recommendation for denial of supplemental security...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: March 10, 2008.
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Felony Child Abuse - 'Responsible Person' A man who lived with his girlfriend and helped care for her two-year-old son was a "person responsible for the care of the child" under Va....

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: March 10, 2008.
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Testimony Translation - Amharic A defendant native speaker of Amharic, who also speaks English, is not entitled to a second court-appointed translator to translate the entire...

Virginia Supreme Court Case Summaries: March 10, 2008.
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Constitutional Taxation - Transportation Authority A 2007 statute, Chapter 896 of the 2007 Acts of Assembly, which allowed establishment of regional transportation authorities to fund road...

Verdicts & Settlements March 10, 2008: Tests for cause of back pain fail to detect bladder cancer.(Case overview)
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff's decedent was a 56-year-old woman with a history of urinary dysfunction who presented to the emergency room with complaints of back and flank pain. The emergency physician ordered a...

Verdicts & Settlements March 10, 2008: Five-vehicle wreck on I-64 results in complicated foot injury.
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This case arose in York County from circumstances surrounding a series of three accidents involving five vehicles. The accidents occurred on Interstate 64 around 3:30 a.m. on March 7, 2004. Plaintiff...

Verdicts & Settlements March 10, 2008: Tractor-trailer causes crash when making u-turn on U.S. 460.
March 10, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Noble R. Price II was driving a 2005 Chevrolet truck on March 4, 2006, in an easterly direction on U.S. 460 in Campbell County. Price was returning to Richmond after making several deliveries. A 2006...

Va. General Assembly is hoping to finish unfinished business.(Virginia)
March 17, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper For all the talk of partisanship and bickering over the filling of judicial vacancies, local delegations have reached a consensus on most of the positions. The General Assembly had an opportunity to fill those...

Drug courts in Va. survive '08 Assembly session.(Virginia)
March 17, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth Virginia's drug court program was a late survivor in the protracted budget wars of the 2008 General Assembly. Lawmakers reached agreement Wednesday to preserve funding for the program that strives to divert criminal...

Washington and Lee University law school: A practical legal education.
March 17, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper The Washington and Lee University law school will start a third-year curriculum this fall that will be less of the same and more of a bridge to the actual practice of law. As an example, instead of taking a...

Virginia Lawyers Media names Vieth Legal Editor.(Peter Veith)(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Peter Vieth has joined the editorial team at Virginia Lawyers Media as the company's new Legal Editor. Actually, the word should be "rejoined." Vieth was a legal reporter for Virginia Lawyers...

Supreme Court of Virginia: Let matters be decided by the jury.
March 17, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper Two opinions last month from the Supreme Court of Virginia reinforced its opposition to resolving cases short of a decision on the merits by a jury. One case, Brown v. Hoffman (VLW 008-6-030), stemmed from the death...

4th Circuit rules safety report admissible.(4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals)
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The family of a Dickenson County coal miner killed in a 2003 mining accident will get another chance to prove their products liability claims against the manufacturers of a mining machine's remote...

Business groups compromise on environmental permits in Virginia.
March 17, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth Environmental groups lobbying at the 2008 General Assembly session managed to block a business-backed effort to undercut Virginia's citizen environmental boards, but the resulting compromise will bring changes to the...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: March 17, 2008.
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Res Judicata - Surface Mine Remedial Act - Constitutional Challenge A limestone mining company that is challenging a provision of the Maryland Surface Mine Dewatering Act under...

U.S. District Court Va. Eastern Case Summaries: March 17, 2008.(Virginia)
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Excessive Force - Taser Device - Qualified Immunity A plaintiff who alleges he was injured by defendant police officer's improper use of a Taser X26 to subdue plaintiff when he...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: March 17, 2008.
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Child Abuse & Neglect - Lesser- Included Offense A defendant did not waive her claim that she could not be convicted of misdemeanor child abuse and neglect, since it is not a...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: March 17, 2008.
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Motion To Disqualify Counsel - Former Client - Appearance Of Conflict A lawyer representing defendants, who also represented defendants' company, United Refuse, before...

Verdicts & Settlements March 17, 2008: Patient dies after surgery for paraesophageal hernia.
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This was a wrongful death case filed by the decedent's ex-wife, Janice Cottrell. On June 12, 2003, the decedent consulted a general surgeon in Covington who diagnosed a paraesophageal hernia and...

Verdicts & Settlements March 17, 2008: Motorcycle passenger injured by motorcycle turning left.(Brief article)
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff was a passenger on a motorcycle when defendant made a left turn to oncoming traffic and struck the motorcycle. Type of Action: Personal injury -- car/motorcycle collision Injuries...

Verdicts & Settlements March 17, 2008: Other accidents at issue in back injury from crash.(Case overview)
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On Sept. 20, 2004, 39-year-old Peggi Hamilton was stopped in a line of traffic on Route 3 in Spotsylvania County when her Pontiac Grand Am was struck in the rear by defendant's SUV and pushed into the...

Verdicts & Settlements March 17, 2008: Other accidents at issue in back injury from crash.(Case overview)
March 17, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On Dec. 30, 2005, the plaintiff, a 48-year-old male who was driving a 2001 Ford automobile, was struck by a 2002 Dodge van at the intersection of Watts Lane and Mechanicsville Turnpike in Henrico...

Commentary: Assessing the probable impact of 'John Crane'.
March 31, 2008... Byline: Roger T. Creager Since the fall of 2007, Virginia attorneys have been double-checking their expert disclosures to make certain they are sufficient under the Supreme Court of Virginia's decision in John Crane Inc. v. Jones, 274 Va....

A long trip to Danville for a short meeting.(trustee meetings)
March 31, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth People who filed for bankruptcy in the Danville area and far Southwest Virginia now have to travel farther - as much as 86 miles farther - to attend short and simple trustee meetings. In Danville, the reason appears to...

After five years, Va. woman still seeks resolution.(Virginia)(April Mapp )
March 31, 2008... Byline: Alan Cooper Almost five years ago, Joshua Bristol struck and seriously injured April Mapp with his motorcycle outside the Three Cheers Lounge in Portsmouth. That incident raised a series of civil and criminal issues that still...

Judge in Western District of Virginia tweaks U.S. Attorney on sentencing objections.(James P. Jones; John Brownlee)
March 31, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth A federal prosecutor's relentless opposition to sentence reductions for crack cocaine offenders apparently has raised the ire of the chief federal judge in the Western District of Virginia. In a page one footnote in...

Case in Winchester highlights issues of doctor recruitment.
March 31, 2008... Byline: Peter Vieth A recent Winchester case that turned on federal anti-kickback laws highlights the pitfalls that await medical practices - and the lawyers who counsel them - when new doctors are recruited. A surgeon recruited to...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: March 31, 2008.
March 31, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Appeals - Final Order - Insurance- Duty To Defend A Norfolk federal judge's administrative closure of a case, in which he held that an insurance carrier had a duty to defend a...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: March 31, 2008.(Virginia)
March 31, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Employment ERISA - Discovery In a pro se plaintiff's suit alleging a wrongful denial of continuous service benefits under a retirement plan he alleges entitlement to through the employer's...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: March 31, 2008.(Virginia)
March 31, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Fraud - Specific Pleading - Amended Complaint A coal company that is suing two principals of a coal mining business for alleged fraud in failing to supply coal plaintiff coal...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: March 31, 2008.
March 31, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Domestic Relations Child Custody - JDR Appeal - De Novo Trial A trial judge erred in telling a mother appealing a JDR custody decision that if she had no new evidence to present, as indicated...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: March 31, 2008.
March 31, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Jurisdiction - N.J. Law - Comity In an Arlington lobbying firm's lawsuit against Atlantic City and its mayor to collect fees under a contract to provide lobbying services, the...

Verdicts & Settlements March 31, 2008: Cause of residual headaches disputed after I-95 crash.(Brief article)(Case overview)
March 31, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was driving home on Interstate 95 on Jan. 1, 2006, when she was rear-ended by the defendant. Liability was admitted and the case was tried on damages only. The plaintiff testified...

Verdicts & Settlements March 31, 2008: Rearender in Fredericksburg causes brain injury, depression.(Brief article)(Case overview)
March 31, 2008... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff A tractor-trailer loaded with wet sand rear-ended a 1987 Ford F-150 truck driven by Ernest D. Wilson Jr. in September 2001 in Fredericksburg. The collision pulled Wilson's shoulder harness out of the...