Virginia Lawyers Weekly articles from May 2006

Virginia Lawyers Weekly archives from May 2006

Virginia Lawyers in the News: May 8, 2006.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The Richmond office of Spotts Fain has added two lawyers: Brian R. Marron is a new shareholder and director and Tonia E. Peake is a new associate. Marron practices in the business section of the...

Letters to the Editor.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff CPF officers explain fund's purpose Dear Editor: As the chair and vice-chair of the Virginia State Bar's Clients' Protection Fund, we write in response to the letter submitted by fellow VSB...

Virginia rules reform group discusses early dismissal, brief limit changes.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The Supreme Court of Virginia will entertain a motion to dismiss or reverse a lower court ruling before the appellate process gets cranked up, under some circumstances. But that early escape hatch isn't clear from...

U.S. Senators John W. Warner and George Allen name Alexandria federal nominees.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper U.S. Senators John W. Warner and George Allen have recommended five people for a vacancy in the Alexandria Division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. They are, in alphabetical order as...

Virginia State Bar dues hike in sight.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The good news is that the Virginia State Bar likely will go eight years without a dues increase. The bad news is that it is moving up on that eighth year. Dues were last raised to $250 a year in July 2000, when the...

'Confidential' letter may not be protected, rules Norfolk federal district judge.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Deborah Elkins Keeping a confidential communication from discovery by an opponent can depend on how that communication is handled, by both the lawyer and the client. When the lawyer works for a local government and his...

58% pass Virginia's February bar exam.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Paul Fletcher The February 2006 bar exam results are in, and there are 345 soon-to-be newly licensed lawyers in the commonwealth. A total of 595 people took the February examination, for a pass rate of 58 percent. That...

U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle's nomination to 4th Circuit could finally reach full Senate.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Caryn Tamber (This article originally ran in The Daily Record, Baltimore, MD, another Dolan Media publication.) A controversial and longstanding nomination to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is once again a hot topic in...

Brunswick County Circuit Court jury awards $1M to warehouse supervisor who fell and broke heel.(Robert Lawson)
May 8, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper A Brunswick County Circuit Court jury awarded $1 million last week to a warehouse supervisor who fell from a trailer after the vehicle moved when he did not expect it. Robert Lawson suffered a broken left heel in...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: May 8, 2006.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Jurisdiction - Interlocutory Appeal - State Dentistry Regulation - FTC Challenge The 4th Circuit does not have jurisdiction to consider a challenge by the Federal Trade...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: May 8, 2006.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Discovery - Attorney- Client Privilege - Work Product - City Attorney A letter from a city attorney to city council members, concerning plaintiffs' application for a use permit...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: May 8, 2006.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Sentencing - Downward Departure - Substantial Assistance A defendant convicted of three capital offenses and other crimes is not entitled to a downward departure based on his...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 8, 2006.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Cocaine Possession - Certificate - Chain Of Custody A defendant's conviction of cocaine possession is affirmed despite his claim that the commonwealth, with its multiple efforts to...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: May 8, 2006.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Discovery - Site Inspection - Sanctions A railroad worker who sues under FELA alleging he was injured while riding on the side of a rail car that was passing very close to a...

Virginia Supreme Court Case Summaries: May 8, 2006.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Habeas Corpus - Ineffective Assistance - Juror Voir Dire A petitioner sentenced to death after being convicted of rape and capital murder of a woman has his habeas petition based on...

Verdicts & Settlements May 8, 2006: Record verdict of $2.3M scored in Montgomery County.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff, David W. Sirry, administrator of the estate of his late 6-year-old daughter, Betty Marie Sirry, filed suit in the Circuit Court for the County of Montgomery, Virginia, for the sum of...

Verdicts & Settlements May 8, 2006: Chesterfield car wreck mediated for $300K.
May 8, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff was struck by defendant, who failed to stop for a stop sign governing traffic at the intersection of Genito and Woolridge Roads in Chesterfield, on Jan. 5, 2004. The defendant admitted to the...

February 2006 Virginia Bar Examination results announced.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Editor's Note: Below is a list of the 345 candidates who passed the February 2006 Virginia Bar Examination. A total of 595 people took the test, for a pass rate of 58 percent. Congratulations! A...

VA Lawyers in the News: May 15, 2006.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The Philadelphia-based construction law firm of Jacoby Donner PC has opened a Portsmouth office. The firm will provide advice to all sectors of the real estate and construction industry in Virginia. ...

Prince George Circuit Court grants summary judgment to cow's owner.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Deborah Elkins It was bovines, not canines, at issue in a recent case before Prince George Circuit Judge W. Allan Sharrett. His honor had to apportion blame for what happened when Elsie (or was it Bessie?) ambled out onto a...

Mandatory insurance issue to be before VA State Bar Council.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The response to whether Virginia should have mandatory legal malpractice insurance depends on the question that frames the issue. If the question is, "How many unsatisfied judgments against lawyers are acceptable?"...

VA Trial Lawyers Assn.'s Mary Lynn Tate keeps going and going...
May 15, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Petite, demure and with a soft Southwest Virginia accent, Mary Lynn Tate hardly presents the image of a legal powerhouse. Those familiar with her work in court, with bar groups and legal reform projects, and as a...

Richmond attorney Kevin R. Huennekens named to judgeship.(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Richmond lawyer Kevin R. Huennekens has been named to a U.S. Bankruptcy judgeship for the Richmond Division of the Eastern District of Virginia. The judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

Federal jury in Charlottesville awards man $2.25M for fabricated confession.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Reston lawyer Robert T. Hall calls it "the case that keeps on giving." For a personal injury attorney such as Hall, such a comment usually would refer to money. But Hall worked on the case of Earl Washington...

Court issues show cause against Roanoke lawyer.(D. Stan Barnhill)
May 15, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The Supreme Court of Virginia has issued a rule for Roanoke lawyer D. Stan Barnhill to show why he should not be held in contempt of court for the tone of a petition for rehearing. Barnhill sought review of the...

Concerns grow with increased employee Internet use.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson If you're at work reading this story on the Internet, you may be in trouble. According to Burstek, a company that provides employee Internet management software, 78 percent of all employees access the...

New Jersey case worries employment lawyers.(Doe v. XYC Corp.)
May 15, 2006... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson (This article originally appeared in Lawyers USA, another Dolan Media newspaper). Already facing concerns about lost productivity and possible network security risks, employers are reeling from a recent...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: May 15, 2006.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Deed Drafting - Tenancy By Entirety - Limitations A debtor cannot recover damages arising from defendant settlement attorney for the alleged improper drafting and recording of three...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 15, 2006.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Sentencing - Cocaine Base - Career Offender - Booker The 4th Circuit rejects a drug defendant's challenge to his 156-month sentence for distributing cocaine base, grounded on...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: May 15, 2006.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Settlement Agreement - Loan Default - Sanctions A pro se debtor who has engaged in extensive litigation since her 2002 default on a business loan from North Carolina Agricultural...

VA Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 15, 2006.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Sexual Offenses - SANE Report - Confrontation Clause At defendant's trial for rape and other sexual offenses, the trial court erred in suppressing a report prepared by a Sexual Assault...

Verdicts & Settlements May 15, 2006: Teen suffers brain injury from collision, wins $250K.(Armbrister v. McDade)
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On March 10, 2000, plaintiff, 17, entered an intersection when defendant, also 17, ran a red light and struck plaintiff in the rear driver's side door at 35 mph. As a result of the collision,...

Verdicts & Settlements May 15, 2006: Plaintiff wins death case, no damages for suffering.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This is an unusual case because the court ordered a special verdict and the jury did not award any damages for suffering and loss of solace. Plaintiff anticipates a motion to remand on the issue in...

Verdicts & Settlements May 15, 2006: Mild brain case reaches settlement.(Jones v. Doe Corporation and Richard Roe)
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This case arose out of a two-car accident in Richmond. The plaintiff was a middle-aged woman. Defendant Roe was a vice president of defendant Doe Corporation. The accident happened at 10:45 p.m....

Verdicts & Settlements May 15, 2006: Cough, surgeries prompt suit, but doc prevails.
May 15, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff had long-term gastric reflux disease when she came under defendant surgeon's care. Plaintiff was diagnosed with a large hiatal hernia with Barrett's esophagus, a pre-cancerous condition...

Commentary: How to dress for success.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Sheryl M. Vassallo You know the old saying that rings true even today -- you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Attorneys cannot afford to make a bad first impression. It could mean the difference between...

Commentary: Virginia native makes it to final three on "American Idol".(Elliott Yamin)
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Virginia has long enjoyed a high profile on reality television. Step in the Wayback Machine to 2000, when "Survivor" started the current run of the genre. Front and center was Rudy Boesch, the...

Commentary: Cat helps nab unlicensed vet in New York.(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff There's a crime-fighting hero in Gotham, and it's not the stud in the tight black suit and bat cowl. It's Fred the Cat. According to the Associated Press, Fred the Cat was part of an...

High court to revisit whether both mom, child have medical malpractice claims.(Bulala v. Boyd )
May 22, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper The Supreme Court of Virginia will review its 1990 ruling in Bulala v. Boyd that both the mother and a child who is born alive have medical malpractice claims. The court also will consider the extent of permissible...

4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says Rule 11 sanction must be imposed.(Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b))
May 22, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper A judge must impose a sanction for violations of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b) in a securities fraud case, but that sanction can be as nominal as identifying the culprit, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

Court of Appeals says bar codes are the same as price tags.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Paul Fletcher Scannable bar codes on consumer products have been around since the early 1970s. The "price tag exception" to the hearsay rule in a shoplifting case - in which an item's price tag is used to establish its value -...

Employers' defense is limited in job discrimination cases.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Deborah Elkins Virginia state employees alleging job discrimination may have one less hurdle to clear to get into federal court, due to recent federal court rulings. State and many local employees have grievance procedures to...

Virginia Legal Community Obituaries: May 22, 2006.(James F. De Deo, Robert L. Polk, Quinlan H. Hancock)(Obituary)
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Quinlan H. Hancock Retired Fairfax Circuit Judge Quinlan H. Hancock died March 31 in Annandale. He was 79. A native of Richmond, he grew up in Northern Virginia. He graduated from Duke...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 22, 2006.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Farm Benefits Application - Illegal Wetland Conversion The 4th Circuit upholds the decision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deny farm benefits to Holly Hill, a Caroline...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: May 22, 2006.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Sentencing - Firearms Possession - Acceptance Of Responsibility A defendant who failed to negotiate a conditional guilty plea to a firearms charge on his own terms, but who stipulated...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: May 22, 2006.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Intellectual Property Patent Infringement - Internet Transactions - 'Means- Plus-Function' Term In this patent litigation involving a transaction system for facilitating computer-to-computer...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 22, 2006.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Burglary Tools - Defendant's Statement - Rule 5A:18 Where defendant challenged his 3:00 a.m. statement to police officers investigating car break-ins that his fingerprints might be on...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: May 22, 2006.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Construction - Quantum Meruit In this dispute between the City of Richmond and a contractor hired to perform stabilization work on the Leigh Street Armory, a historically valuable...

Verdicts & Settlements May 22, 2006: Defense prevails, woman 'should have discovered' foreign body.(Peres v. Dr. X, Dr. Y, and Hospital Z)
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This medical malpractice case was significant for at least two reasons: (1) two of the three defendants were effectively uninsured because of the insolvency of the Doctors' Insurance Reciprocal; and...

Verdicts & Settlements May 22, 2006: Prison bus driver gets UIM for wreck.(Tolbert v. Seda)(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Tolbert was the driver of a state Department of Corrections prison bus. Defendant pulled out from a side road and in the path of the prison bus and caused a collision. Virginia does not require UM/UIM...

Verdicts & Settlements May 22, 2006: Case of heart attack after stress test mediated for $750K.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The decedent, a 37-year-old man, died in his home as a result of a massive heart attack shortly after midnight on Aug. 21, 2003. He had undergone an Exercise Cardiolite Test to evaluate the extent of...

Verdicts & Settlements May 22, 2006: Med-mal death case mediated for $800K.
May 22, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The decedent was a 44-year-old single mother of three children when she died as a result of a massive heart attack during the early morning hours of Saturday, May 31, 2003. She had been seen and...

Commentary: cross-exam is good theater ... but direct exam wins.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Brian Moriarty In the lore of trial work, particularly Hollywood's version, the most dramatic moment is the cross-examination of a hostile witness. The jury, the gallery and, of course, the TV audience is mesmerized and...

Commentary: you don't send me flowers anymore.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Deborah Elkins That was the wistful refrain a few years ago when Barbra Streisand sang a duet with Neil Diamond. There's gotta be a remix of that somewhere. One modern take on the theme came up at the annual Judicial...

Virginia Lawyers in the News: May 29, 2006.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Richmond lawyer Colleen M. Quinn has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. Quinn, who practices with Cantor Arkema PC, has been selected to chair the 2007...

Two Northern Virginia employment lawyers change firms.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Two of the more prominent employment lawyers in Northern Virginia -- John Bredehoft and Mark Dare -- have moved. Dare has gone from Reed Smith, with more than 1,000 lawyers, to the five-attorney employment boutique...

Virginia judges' reviews to stay confidential.(Judicial Performance Evaluation)
May 29, 2006... Byline: Deborah Elkins Next month, Virginia rolls out its judicial performance evaluation program for the commonwealth's first class of eligible judges. Mum's the word when it comes to critiques of judges' professional performance...

Fairfax County found liable for reverse discrimination.(Bennett v. Fairfax County)(Case overview)
May 29, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper A federal judge in Alexandria has affirmed a jury finding that Fairfax County engaged in reverse discrimination against a white male administrator. But he knocked down the jury's $540,000 verdict to an award of $50,000....

'Burned' CDs don't give cops probable cause for a search.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Paul Fletcher A guy named Carmus is driving around Danville when a cop car's lights and whirring sirens go off. He gets pulled over for an equipment violation, probably a bad taillight or something like that. Carmus has a...

Fairfax County Circuit court rules lis pendens won't back slander of title.(Bison Building Co. LLC)
May 29, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper A memorandum of lis pendens is entitled to absolute immunity and therefore cannot be the basis for a slander of title action, a Fairfax County Circuit judge has ruled. In deciding an issue of first impression in...

Norfolk attorney Robinson's suspension upheld by high court.(lawyer William P. Robinson Jr.)
May 29, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Norfolk attorney William P. Robinson Jr. was notorious for missing deadlines as an attorney and for frequently invoking -- some said abusing -- legislative privilege during his long career in the General Assembly. ...

Carr is tapped as the new Public Defender in Norfolk.(The daughter of a military family Sherri Carr)
May 29, 2006... Byline: Alan Cooper Sherri Carr is the new public defender in Norfolk. Carr was elevated from the No. 2 slot in the office earlier this month following the election of her predecessor, S. Clark Daugherty, to a Norfolk General District...

Fairfax attorney Jean Rouault Galloway dies May 15.(Obituary)
May 29, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Jean Rouault Galloway Jean Rouault Galloway, who attended law school in her 50s and later established an elder law practice in Northern Virginia, died May 15 of complications from leukemia. She was...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 29, 2006.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Sentencing - Vote-Buying - Booker Although a defendant convicted of vote-buying claims the district court erred under U.S. v. Booker when it sentenced him to 33 months in prison...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: May 29, 2006.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Venue - Consumer Protection - Credit Reports A Richmond federal district judge denies a change of venue to Alexandria in this consumer protection suit in which plaintiff alleges...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 29, 2006.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Suspended Sentence - Lifetime Probation Where a defendant who was smoking marijuana and playing with guns accidentally shot and killed one of his friends, the trial judge did not...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: May 29, 2006.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice FOIA - Attorney's Fees A city that admits that it failed to property respond to an e-mail request to the mayor to provide certain documents under the Virginia Freedom of...

Verdicts & Settlements May 29, 2006: Injury to warehouse worker nets $1 million verdict.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was a 59-year-old warehouse worker from Broadnax in Brunswick County. On Oct. 16, 2002, he was working at Pecht Distributors in Lawrenceville when a delivery from the Budweiser brewery in...

Verdicts & Settlements May 29, 2006: Doctors prevail in 'flesh-eating' bacteria case.
May 29, 2006... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff, Ms. Harris, was admitted to Norton Community Hospital on Aug. 16, 2000, with a three-day history of shortness of breath and wheezing. She was admitted to the service of her regular...