Virginia Lawyers Weekly articles from November 2003

Virginia Lawyers Weekly archives from November 2003

Virginia Lawyers In The News: November 3, 2003.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Prince William County Attorney Sharon E. Pandak is the 2003 recipient of the Prince William County Bar Association's highest honor, the Arthur W. Sinclair Professionalism Award. The recipient of this...

Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys Taps Officers For 2003-2004.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff At its annual meeting at the Hotel Roanoke on Oct. 17, the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys elected its officers for the coming year. They are: * President - Thomas G. Bell Jr., Staunton...

Verdicts & Settlements November 3, 2003: Child Awarded Lifetime Birth-Injury Benefits.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The infant-complainant was born at Radford Community Hospital on Feb. 14, 1995 at 41 weeks gestation. A fetal heart rate monitor applied at the hospital revealed an initial heart rate of approximately...

Verdicts & Settlements November 3, 2003: Plaintiff, Nursing Home Settle Wrongful Death Suit.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The 84-year-old decedent was a resident at the defendant nursing home from July 2000 until October 2001. The plaintiff's evidence and the testimony by its experts established that the resident suffered...

Virginia Woman Gets $800,000 For Injury During Blood Donation.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Dawn Chase A Fairfax woman who suffered permanent nerve damage while donating blood to the American National Red Cross has been awarded $800,000 by a federal jury in Alexandria. VERDICT REPORT The plaintiff's case was...

Virginia State Bar Discipline.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The following attorneys are currently ineligible to practice law in Virginia because their licenses have been suspended or revoked: * Roger Cory Hinde of Richmond - License suspended...

Non-Signatory Is Bound By Arbitration Clause In Pact, Rules U.S. District Judge.
November 3, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck The defendant in a breach-of-contract case is bound by the contract's arbitration clause even though it never signed the underlying agreement, a U.S. district judge has ruled. The defendant, a "network marketing...

U.S. District Court For Western Virginia Case Summaries: November 3, 2003.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Medicare Reimbursement - Insurance Settlement - Secondary Payer For plaintiff's failure to exhaust her administrative remedies, a district court dismisses a plaintiff's suit...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: November 3, 2003.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorneys Legal Malpractice - Financial Workout - Limitations Where a real estate developer's damages on a particular claim did not occur until after an arbitrator made his rulings and the...

Boyd-Graves: Judges Should Hear Divorces.
November 3, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck The Boyd-Graves Conference is urging the end of the use of commissioners in chancery in contested divorce cases. A circuit judge would hear a divorce case except where the parties consented or where there was...

Virginia Legal Obituary: Basil C. Burke Jr.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Former Madison County General District Judge Basil Carne Burke Jr., died Oct. 23 at his home in Leon. He was 80. A native of New York City, he attended the University of Virginia law school after...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: November 3, 2003.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Administrative Expense - IRS Penalty - Ch. 11 In this chapter 11 case, the bankruptcy court grants summary judgment to the Internal Revenue Service on its claim for payment of an...

U.S. District Court For Eastern Virginia: November 3, 2003.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Counterclaim - Defamation Where plaintiff, a former candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates, is suing her former opponent and a private investigative agency that allegedly...

Woman Gets $800,000 For Injury During Blood Donation.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Dawn Chase A Fairfax woman who suffered permanent nerve damage while donating blood to the American National Red Cross has been awarded $800,000 by a federal jury in Alexandria. The plaintiff's case was significantly bolstered...

Albo: Virginia Lawyers Should Say Where IOLTA Money Goes.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Dawn Chase A Fairfax County lawyer-legislator unhappy with the Virginia State Bar for making a contribution to a nonprofit corporation out of its large reserve account will press for legislation that would allow Virginia lawyers to...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: November 3, 2003.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Felon In Possession - Guilty Plea Withdrawal A defendant's conviction of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm in violation of Va. Code Sect. 18.2-308.2 is affirmed...

Verdicts & Settlements November 3, 2003: IDEA violation claim rejected.
November 3, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff, Joshua Smith, was a sixth-grade student in Isle of Wight public schools. He and his mother filed a lawsuit against the Isle of Wight School Board, the superintendent of schools and the...

Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Actions.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff CORRECTION Due to incorrect information provided to Virginia Lawyers Weekly by the Virginia State Bar, two disciplinary cases against Vienna lawyer Alan Jay Cilman were misidentified in...

Richmond, Va. Judge Sues Chief Justice Leroy R. Hassell.
November 10, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck A Richmond judge has gone to court to stop the implementation of a policy that would require general district judges to work at least 40 hours each week. The Committee on District Courts approved the policy at...

Verdicts & Settlements November 10, 2003: Va. Jury Delivers Defense Verdict In Rear-End Case.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiffs, husband and wife, were consolidated in this case. This was a rear end collision and liability was admitted at the outset of the trial. Mr. Riddick, the plaintiff, received treatment on...

Verdicts & Settlements November 10, 2003: Garage Policy Case Settles For $134K.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Jennifer Mullins, a minor, was injured in a single-car accident. She and her parents sued Heidi Becker, also a minor. Becker had $25,000 in liability insurance. Becker filed for bankruptcy protection...

Verdicts & Settlements November 10, 2003: Wrongful Death Suit Settles For $7.5M.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff's decedent was returning to her home in northern Virginia on Dec. 26, 2002 when the collision occurred in Prince George County. The decedent had been visiting with her aunt in a nearby...

Drunken Driver's Mother Named In Negligence Suit.
November 10, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck The mother of a man who killed a 16-year-old boy while driving drunk is a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the boy's family. The boy was a passenger in a Honda Civic driven by his brother on May...

Bell Tolls For Virginia CLE Slackers.
November 10, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck More than one out of every seven lawyers in Virginia failed to meet the Oct. 31 deadline for completing the annual continuing legal education requirement. And that's an improvement, according to a bar official....

Virginia Supreme Court Case Summaries: November 10, 2003.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Auto Dealer - Vehicle Allocation - DMV Hearing In evaluating a Winchester Volkswagen dealer's challenge to Volkswagen's vehicle allocation methodology, the Virginia Commissioner...

Commentary: Taking The Office On The Road.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Bruce L. Dorner Modern computing and Chinese food have much in common. First, you need to decide if you want to have a "take out" or "dine in" meal. If you only work at an office desk, then the "dine in" desktop machine is all...

Marketing Doesn't Have To Be Expensive To Look That Way.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Michael M. Bowden Most marketing agencies will gladly work with a law firm to develop a unique "brand" and a distinctive advertising campaign - provided that firm is ready and able to fork over tens of thousands of dollars for the...

Commentary: Making Sure The Phrase 'Quality Of Life' Is A Reality In Yours.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Nancy Byerly Jones The "Are You Being Your Own Best Friend?" Test 1. How many of your favorite activities have you actually done during the past month? Last two months? 2. Do you usually feel like you are in control of your...

Virginia Supreme Court Rules Default Judgement Can Be Set Aside For Nursing Home.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Deborah Elkins A med-mal defendant who suffered a default judgment after its financially troubled insurance carrier had difficulty hiring defense counsel can get that default judgment set aside, the Supreme Court of Virginia has...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: November 10, 2003.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Class Certification - Health Plan Collapse In this litigation by health-care plan subscribers suing the failed plan's claims administrator as the plan's successor in interest,...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: November 10, 2003.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Child Abuse - Teacher Discipline Where a teacher responded to an 11-year-old student's name-calling and resistance to sitting at a desk in the hallway outside the classroom by...

Above And Beyond: Lawyer Pursues Late-Night Carjacker.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Matthew Philips There are times in life when a situation forces a split-second decision. Most of the time, those decisions are of little consequence: Do I take this great parking space, or let the elderly lady with her blinker...

Virginia Supreme Court Rules No Fees Awarded After Lemon Law Settlement.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Paul Fletcher Even though a Lemon-Law plaintiff obtained a refund and release in settling her claim with a car company, she is not entitled to attorneys' fees under the Lemon Law, the Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled. ...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: November 10, 2003.
November 10, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Commercial Negligence - Forged Signature In this suit by a corporation against a bank under the UCC's Article III and common law, a circuit court enters summary judgment for the bank. ...

"Dukes of Hazzard" memorabilia store to close its doors.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The end of the road is near for "Cooter's Place" in Sperryville. The garage-turned-museum for "Dukes of Hazzard" memorabilia near Culpeper has been a destination for fans of the popular television...

U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia Case Summaries: November 17, 2003.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Securities Securities Fraud - Reform Act - Scienter - Company Officer Position Where plaintiff investors allege defendant company committed securities fraud by fraudulently concealing by about...

U.S. District Court For Western Virginia Case Summaries: November 17, 2003.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice In Rem Proceeding - Trailer Forfeiture - Contraband Cigarettes In this in rem proceeding by a truck driver who transports goods in his tractor-trailer for a living, and whose...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: November 17, 2003.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Second- Degree Murder - Firearm Use - Imperfect Self-Defense At defendant's trial for the fatal shooting of a man he followed out of a bar after an altercation, the trial court did not...

Henrico County Officials In Virginia Adds Docket To Reduce Wait-Time.
November 17, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck Henrico County officials are taking up Virginia's Chief Justice on his suggestion that courts should reduce waiting time for criminal defendants. On Feb. 1, 2004, the county's general district court will add a...

Virginia Circuit Judge Rules Divorce Decree No Bar To Wife's Assault Suit.
November 17, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck Even though a divorce decree had been entered, a woman can press forward with a civil lawsuit for assault and battery allegedly committed by her former husband during their marriage, a Rockingham County circuit judge...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: November 17, 2003.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Construction Management - Manager's Fee - Attorney's Fee Where a lot owner in an upscale residential community sought to evade restrictive covenants requiring building only by certain...

New Virginia code addresses frivolous motions from opposing attorneys to delay litigation.
November 17, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck Opposing counsel has really done it this time. He's slow to respond to discovery requests, he browbeats your client during discovery, and he objects to every other question you ask at trial. And now, he's insulted...

Verdicts & Settlements November 17, 2003: Va. Jury Awards Defense Verdict In Wrongful Death Suit.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Mr. Smith, 49, underwent gastric bypass surgery on Feb. 12, 1999. He remained in the hospital longer than anticipated and had multiple complaints of pain. The nurses and defendant surgeon attributed the...

Verdicts & Settlements November 17, 2003: Jury Awards Plaintiffs $4.87 For Defective Knee Prostheses.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiffs are four of 62 patients of a prominent knee surgeon, who received highly oxidized and defective Duracon Unicompartmental Knee (DUK) implants over the course of two years. A problem with the...

Virginia-based MJ's Counrty Kitchen closes its doors.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff MJ's Country Kitchen, site of the Louisa County Bar Association's meetings every term day, has served its last hand-formed burger with hand-cut French fries. The Louisa bar has been meeting there...

Eminem avoids defamation lawsuit by childhood friend.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff And here's one from a completely different point along the pop cult spectrum. Up in Michigan, a judge last month dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by a former schoolmate of Eminem who claimed...

Virginia Jury Award Plaintiffs $4.8M For Defective Knee Replacements.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Matthew Philips A Fairfax jury has awarded a total of $4.8 million to four Northern Virginia patients who received defective prosthetic knee replacements manufactured by Pfizer. All four patients, ranging in age from 60 to 85,...

Virginia Circuit Judge Cuts $10M Verdict For Defamation To $1M.
November 17, 2003... Byline: Matthew Philips A Charlottesville Circuit judge has overturned the $10 million defamation verdict awarded to a Stanardsville man who sued a local television station for falsely reporting that he had crack cocaine in his home and at...

Reciprocal Officers Sued By Insurance Commissioner.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Dawn Chase Key officers of the Reciprocal of America and companies it did business with conspired to hide from insurance regulators the company's fragile financial condition and engaged in a pattern of racketeering, a federal...

Virginia lawyer- civic activist Barry C. Beringer dies at 57.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Lawyer-civic activist Barry C. Beringer died Sept. 29 in Arlington. He was 57. Born in Manhattan and raised in Deptford, N.J, Mr. Beringer lived in the Washington D.C. area since he came to attend...

U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit Case Summaries: November 24, 2003.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Class Action - Attorney's Fees - RICO A Maryland federal district court did not err in holding that plaintiff attorney was not entitled to any attorney's fees for work she...

U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia Case Summaries: November 24, 2003.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Removal Jurisdiction - Wrongful Death A wrongful death action filed by the estate of a Peruvian citizen against various tobacco-related entities, including Philip Morris USA,...

Committee chooses new name for Mary Washington College.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff By a one-vote margin, a committee appointed to recommend a name covering the undergraduate and graduate schools at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg chose "Washington & Monroe University." ...

Virginia postal worker charged with misdemeanor after telling her sister she had been shot.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Maybe you can figure out why someone would joke around about this. A postal worker in Richmond was charged with a misdemeanor after jokingly telling her sister she had been shot on duty. Police...

Frightened deer crashes through mattress store window.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This will give a whole new meaning to the term "going stag." Up in Charlottesville earlier this month, a startled deer crashed through the windows of a mattress store, breaking two tall glass panes and...

Richmond Lawyer By Day, Irish Pub Musician By Night.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Matthew Philips There aren't many attorneys out there who can play the Irish pennywhistle, and the guitar, the accordion, the harmonica, the bodhran, and something called the guitjo or who can carry a tune, for that matter. No, the...

Virginia Lawyer Hit With $15,000 Sanction.
November 24, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck Finding that an Alexandria lawyer behaved in "an utterly unprofessional and demeaning manner," a Fairfax Circuit judge ordered the lawyer to pay $15,000 in sanctions. The lawyer, John W. Toothman, was...

Virginia Judicial Council Seeks 5 New Judgeships In 2004.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Matthew Philips The Judicial Council of Virginia has asked the General Assembly to create five new circuit court judgeships. The new judgeships would be added to each of the following judicial circuits: * 1st (Chesapeake)...

Virginia Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: November 24, 2003.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Felony Child Abuse - Child Driver Where defendant was drinking beer and had her eight-year-old son sit on her lap and drive her van, and he wrecked the van after driving it into a...

Verdicts & Settlements November 24, 2003: Nursing Home Wrongful Death Suit Settles For $175K.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The decedent was admitted to the defendant nursing home for total medical management. He suffered a mild stroke while at the nursing home, experiencing left-side weakness and periods of aphasia. As a...

Verdicts & Settlements November 24, 2003: Longshoreman Awarded $1.5M In Mediation.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was a longshoreman employed by International Container Services as a refrigerator repairman working with refrigerated containers at Portsmouth Marine Terminals. While working on a...

Virginia lawyer uses focus groups for feedback on an auto negligence case.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Dawn Chase When Richmond lawyer John C. Shea went to a mediated settlement conference recently, he had a new tool with him. Shea had used a focus group to provide feedback on the case, and he had prepared a video showing the...

Virginia Lawyers In The News: November 24, 2003.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Peter E. Broadbent III has joined the Richmond based firm of DurretteBradshaw PLC as an associate, practicing primarily in the areas of complex litigation, health care and bankruptcy. Broadbent...

Virginia Beach Lawyer Is Stymied In Dispute With Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission.
November 24, 2003... Byline: John D. Tuerck A Virginia Beach defense lawyer who last year had a run-in with a Norfolk judge now is butting heads with the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission. And in this fight, the commission is leading on points. ...

Verdicts & Settlements November 24, 2003: Defense Verdict Granted In Suit Over Aerosol Paint Can.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiffs filed a products liability suit against the defendants for breach of warranty and failure to warn, alleging that an aerosol paint can purportedly manufactured, sold and/or distributed by...

Verdicts & Settlements November 24, 2003: Defense Verdict In Suit Over Fall From Ladder.
November 24, 2003... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This was a law action by a painter hired by a homeowner to paint certain portions of his house. The husband and wife were sued as defendants. The allegation was that a sill upon which the painter...