Virginia Lawyers Weekly articles from September 2005

Virginia Lawyers Weekly archives from September 2005

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 5, 2005.(National Federation of the Blind v. Federal Trade Comm'n)(Provident Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Cohen)(Lamparello v. Falwell )
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Social Security - Misleading Mailing Envelopes - Civil Penalty An administrative appeals board did not err in upholding a determination by an administrative law judge that...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: September 5, 2005.(U.S. v. Cisneros)(Sanders v. The Mitre Corp.)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Vienna Convention - Mexican National's Statements - No Prejudice A Mexican national charged with capital murder cannot suppress his statements made to police on the ground that he was...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: September 5, 2005.(Wachovia Bank N.A. v. Ranson)(Appalachian Power Co. v. Sprinkle (Jones, J.))(U.S. v. Bodkins (Conrad, J.))
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Diversity Jurisdiction - National Bank This diversity action filed by Wachovia Bank, a national banking association with its principal place of business in North Carolina,...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: September 5, 2005.(re: United American Inc. (Mayer, J.))(Siddiqui v. Gardner )
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Pre- Petition Claim Payments - Doctrine Of Necessity - Ch. 11 A debtor contractor is authorized by the bankruptcy court to make pre-petition claim payments to an electrical...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 5, 2005.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Domestic Relations PSA - Veterans' Disability Benefits - Res Judicata A trial court did not err in barring husband's collateral attack on an assignment of his monthly veterans' disability...

Testimony of breath test giver not needed, Virginia Court of Appeals says.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper The Confrontation Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not require the person who administered a breath test to testify in a drunken driving case, a divided panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled last week. ...

Virginia State Bar receives only one bid for online research.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper Fastcase submitted the only proposal last week in response to the Virginia State Bar's request for ways to provide online legal research service to every member of the organization. "We'll go through the steps of...

Judge James Harry Michael dies at 86.(Obituary)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Brent Baldwin Senior U.S. District Judge James Harry Michael Jr., who had a long career of distinguished public service as a state senator and federal judge, died Aug. 29. He was 86. A native of Charlottesville, Judge Michael...

Virginia Bar Association to provide help after Katrina.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Brent Baldwin The Virginia Bar Association is creating a relief fund to help lawyers in the Gulf Coast area help their clients after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina last week. The fund will be similar to previous VBA projects...

Conservators trying to verify legend about cat aboard Civil War ironclad.(Brief Article)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Here's a Civil War history item. Was there a black cat aboard the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, placed inside a cannon by a superstitious but desperate sailor as the vessel was sinking? ...

Former Richmond prosecutor loses position in New South Wales.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Former Richmond prosecutor Joe Morrissey had what appeared to be a sweet deal lined up Down Under. He was all set to be a mentor on trial advocacy to the 100 crown prosecutors in New South Wales,...

9-11 American flag burned to put end to questions of authenticity.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Up in Northern Virginia, a guy paid $25,000 for an American flag that purportedly flew over the Pentagon on Sept. 11. Questions about its authenticity lingered, though, and he figured out a a way to...

Virginia Lawyers in the News: September 5, 2005.(appointments)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Ryan W. Boggs, Christine M. Boronyak and R. Willson Hulcher have joined the Richmond office of Williams Mullen. Boggs is an associate in the firm's real estate section, where his practice focuses...

Commentary: Revealed: The mysteries of the caucus in mediation.
September 5, 2005... Byline: James W. Reeves (This article originally ran in Missouri Lawyers Weekly, St. Louis, MO, another Dolan Media publication). Perhaps you're familiar with the routine: After the joint session in mediation, the mediator puts each of...

Virginia family court may cost more than $19M a year.
September 5, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper The Supreme Court of Virginia staff has some numbers on the proposed family court, squishy though they may be. Cyril Miller, director of judicial planning in the court's administrative office, used that term several...

Verdicts & Settlements September 5, 2005: Case over hot-tea burns is mediated.(Doe v. ABC Hospital)(Brief Article)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The 62-year-old plaintiff was being treated in the ICU for an unrelated condition. She was in a confused and agitated state, and was receiving sedatives. Defendant nurse served plaintiff a hot cup of...

Verdicts & Settlements September 5, 2005: Case of TBI injury during Tae Kwon Do class settled.(Ford v. Martial Arts Partners Inc.)(Brief Article)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff was participating in a Tae Kwon Do class with his daughter and claims that the instructor struck him in the head with his foot resulting in a brain injury. Other members in the class, however,...

Verdicts & Settlements September 5, 2005: Raging driver causes non-contact wreck.(Doe v. Roe)(Brief Article)
September 5, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The defendant in this case was driving aggressively and became enraged when he could not get around plaintiff's car. When he finally got around plaintiff, he slammed on his brakes causing plaintiff to...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 12, 2005.(United Kingdom Ministry of Defence v. Trimble Navigation Ltd.)(U.S. v. Washington)
September 12, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Contract Disputes Act - Government Contract - Claims Court The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense, which claims it is a third-party beneficiary of a GPS-related procurement contract...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: September 12, 2005.(Nigh v. Koons Buick Pontiac GMC Inc.)(U.S. v. Lentz )
September 12, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Consumer Protection TILA - Attorney's Fees - Auto Purchase Although the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a car buyer's damage award under the Truth in Lending Act, and the district court will...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: September 12, 2005.(Tunnell v. Ford Motor Co.)(Crist v. Rochester Corp.)(Moore v. CVS Corp. & Taneeb)(Campbell v. DPT Laboratories Ltd.)
September 12, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Discovery Sanction - Auto Ignition In this suit involving issues related to ignition fires in Jaguar automobiles, a magistrate judge recommends that plaintiff is entitled to...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 12, 2005.(Humphries v. Commonwealth)(Martin v. Commonwealth)(DeLuca v. Katchmeric )
September 12, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Murder Two - Acute Stress Disorder At defendant's murder trial, the trial judge did not err in excluding evidence that defendant suffered acute stress disorder after the beating that...

Costs of republishing Code of Virginia keep going up.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper No one who uses the Code of Virginia regularly would dispute the General Assembly's observation this year that it is "increasingly convoluted and disorganized." Fifty-five years of legislation and revisions of...

VA State Bar's Task Force on Multi-Jurisdictional Practice proposes revised rule of court.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper Appearances pro hac vice in Virginia by out-of-state lawyers would become much more formal, not to mention expensive, under a revised rule of court proposed by the Virginia State Bar's Task Force on Multi-Jurisdictional...

Supreme Court of VA Chief Justice and Pres. of VA State Bar ask lawyers for 10 pro bono hours.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Brent Baldwin The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia and the President of the Virginia State Bar are asking each lawyer in Virginia to donate 10 hours of time to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Chief Justice...

Federal judge rules man can recover attorneys' fee incurred in lost appeal.(Nigh v. Koons Buick Pontiac GMC Inc.)
September 12, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff A plaintiff can recover the attorneys' fees incurred in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of a case filed under the Truth in Lending Act, even though he lost on the only matter considered by the high...

American Bar Association study offers snapshot of legal malpractice claims.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Ann W. Parks Dolan Media Newswires Personal injury and real estate remain the practice areas most likely to generate a legal malpractice claim, according to the latest survey conducted by the American Bar Association's Standing...

With PDAs gaining popularity, will laptops be left on the desktop?(personal digital assistants)
September 12, 2005... Byline: Marylou Doehrman Dolan Media Newswires (This article originally ran in the Colorado Springs Business Journal, Colorado Springs, CO, another Dolan Media publication.) The personal digital assistant is gaining momentum as...

New rule on res judicata proposed, input sought by VA Judicial Council.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The Judicial Council is seeking input from the bench and bar on a proposed new Rule of Court, Rule 3:24, relating to preclusion of claims on res judicata grounds. The standard in the Rule is that in...

Commentary: Creating 'moving media' demonstrative evidence.
September 12, 2005... Byline: Steven V. Tringali (This article originally ran in the MA Lawyers Weekly, Boston, MA, another Dolan Media publication.) If a picture is worth a thousand words, then "moving pictures" could well be worth millions. For many...

VA State Bar's proposed new Rule of Court on pro hac vice practice.(Virginia)
September 12, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Editor's Note: The Virginia State Bar's Task Force on Multi-Jurisdictional Practice has proposed a new Rule of Court, Rule 1A:4, to cover pro hac vice appearances by out-of-state lawyers. The VSB...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 19, 2005.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Military Detention - Enemy Combatant Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who associated with forces hostile to the U.S. in Afghanistan, and who later entered the U.S. from Pakistan with...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: September 19, 2005.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Disability Discrimination - Public School Access - ADA A Richmond public school student who is disabled, and his mother, can sue the City of Richmond under the Americans with...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: September 19, 2005.(Virginia )
September 19, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Default Judgment - Corporate Bankruptcy - Guarantors' Liability A bank is entitled to default judgment against the guarantors on a corporate note who failed to timely file an...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 19, 2005.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Jurisdiction - Guilty Plea - Post- Conviction Motions A defendant seeking to overturn his misdemeanor sexual battery conviction on a guilty plea, after he was charged as a juvenile...

Nursing home's ex-employees can talk to estate's lawyer, rules Lancaster County Circuit judge.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Deborah Elkins In a med-mal suit against a nursing home, the lawyer for the patient's estate can talk to former employees of the nursing home, but not to current employees, a Lancaster County Circuit judge has ruled. To...

Chief Judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals, Johanna L. Fitzpatrick, to retire.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper Johanna L. Fitzpatrick, a judge for 25 years and chief judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals for almost seven years, will retire April 1. Fitzpatrick said she is announcing her retirement now to give the General...

Hours-of-service rules for long-haul trucks reinstated by Bush administration.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Nora Lockwood Tooher, Dolan Media Newswires (This article originally ran in Lawyers Weekly USA, Boston, MA, another Dolan Media publication.) The Bush administration has reinstated rules extending the allowable driving hours...

Federal prosecutors pursue assault case, man takes Alford plea.
September 19, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper Claire Cardwell and Deirdre Enright were paid for helping to win the dismissal of federal murder charges filed against Darrell David Rice in the deaths of two women in Shenandoah National Park. They were so...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: September 26, 2005.(Danilov v. Aguirre, Holly Hills Farm Corp. v. U.S.)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Immigration - Naturalization Application - Jurisdiction A district court does not have subject matter jurisdiction to hear this action filed by "an impatient applicant for...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: September 26, 2005.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Cigarette Smuggling - Sentencing - Tax Evasion Quantity In his scheme to smuggle cigarettes from Virginia to California and purportedly on to Armenia, defendant's guilty plea...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: September 26, 2005.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Administrative Expenses - Ch. 7 - Ch. 13 Conversion - Trustee Fees Where a former Chapter 7 trustee has filed an application for administrative expenses in each of four cases in...

Virginia Supreme Court Case Summaries: September 26, 2005.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Practice Default Judgment - UM Coverage - Fraud Although defendant driver, who was driving his daughter's car at the time of an auto accident, contacted the office of plaintiff's lawyer...

Popular Northern Virginia bike trail subject of easement suit in Supreme Court of VA.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper The W&OD Trail in Northern Virginia likely will remain a 45-mile path for cyclists and hikers instead of a telecommunications corridor as a result of a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Virginia. The 100-foot...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 26, 2005.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Workers' Comp Medical Benefits - Out- Of-State Settlement The Uninsured Employers Fund is not entitled to a credit against medical benefits owed under the Virginia Workers' Compensation Act...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: September 26, 2005.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorneys Disqualification - Prior Representation In this litigation between a developer and the Fauquier County Water and Sanitation Authority, the law firm of Hunton & Williams is not...

Verdicts & Settlements September 26, 2005: Defense verdict returned in child's injury case.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On June 22, 2000, the 2-month-old plaintiff and her parents presented to the emergency department at a Northern Virginia hospital. The infant was evaluated in the triage area and taken to the emergency...

Verdicts & Settlements September 26, 2005: Car-wreck victim settles with windshield installer.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff, driving a 1985 Chevy Blazer on I-664 in Tidewater, was struck in the rear and lost control; the vehicle rolled and he was ejected. He sustained significant back and internal injuries...

Verdicts & Settlements September 26, 2005: Prescription error leads to $200K settlement.(Brief Article)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff was a 61-year-old man generally in a state of good health. He developed swelling in his left ankle that was determined to be a deep venous thrombosis. His vascular surgeon gave him a...

Verdicts & Settlements September 26, 2005: Defense win in dental malpractice case.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was a disabled Vietnam veteran who had received his routine dental care at the VA Medical Center. He wanted to have his teeth whitened, which required him to go to a private dentist, and...

Some really strange names found in old deed books in Virginia's counties.(Brief Article)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Paul Fletcher Anyone who has ever searched a really old title in the really old deed books in one of Virginia's really old counties has come across some pretty oddball names. My favorite personal discovery comes from...

Commentary: Another tail of marital woe.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Deborah Elkins When a couple divorces, lawyers have to contend with the "yours, mine and ours" of the ensuing property split. It's not uncommon for one spouse to say a particular piece of property was "yours," but is now...

VA Lawyers in the News: September 26, 2005.(Virginia)(appointments)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Vandeventer Black LLP has added two lawyers, Stephanie Himel-Nelson and Katherine Murray. Himel-Nelson will concentrate her practice in government/public contracts and construction law and...

Former justice of Supreme Court of VA named to Court of Arbitration for Sport.(John Charles Thomas)(Virginia )
September 26, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper John Charles Thomas, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia and chief of the appellate practice group at Hunton & Williams, has been named a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. "The court is...

Panel to begin revamp of Virginia's appellate court rules.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper No more "gotchas." Well, certainly not as many anyway. That's one of the goals of an advisory committee on the rules for Virginia's appellate courts that will meet for the first time Wednesday. Supreme Court...

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Norfolk attorney brings back evacuees from the Gulf.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Brent Baldwin Norfolk lawyer Michael Hamar was so sick of watching the television images of Hurricane Katrina victims that he felt he had to do something. So he rented a van and drove south. The goal: finding evacuees somewhere...

VA Trial Lawyers Assn. provides online research to members before VA State Bar does.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper Virginia State Bar members may get Fastcase, the online legal research service, at no additional cost in the next few months. Members of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association have access to Fastcase today at no...

Supreme Court of VA rules 'apparent agency' will not support a medical malpractice claim.(Virginia)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Paul Fletcher A truck driver who claims he received faulty care from an emergency room doctor cannot sue the hospital claiming that the doctor, who worked for a separate medical group, was the "apparent agent" of the hospital, the...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 26, 2005.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights First Amendment - Restricted Speech - Outdoor College Campus A policy of the University of Maryland at the flagship College Park campus that restricts speech in outdoor areas by...

Wine distribution case headed to the Supreme Court of VA.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Paul Fletcher Doug Adams, a wine distributor, spent 13 years selling a brand of French wine, Louis Latour, throughout Virginia. Two years ago, Louis Latour Inc., the U.S.-based subsidiary of a French winery, gave Virginia...

Supreme Court of VA, VA State Bar tout service to solo practitioners and small firms.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Deborah Elkins The price was right for the nearly 300 lawyers who attended the Virginia State Bar's Solo & Small Firm Practitioner Forum at James Madison University on Sept. 21. But the program and CLE were not really "free."...

VA Court of Appeals rules defendant's jumpsuit was a disadvantage.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper Paradice Carnell Jackson II took the stand to tell a Stafford County Circuit Court jury that he was merely an innocent bystander to burglaries committed by two companions. His account didn't have a lot of...

Supreme Court of VA strikes pact barring work for any other CIA contractor.(Central Intelligence Agency)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Alan Cooper The departure of a security guard from one company to become an administrative assistant at another hardly seems like the type of case that would involve two large law firms, much less result in a 4-3 decision from the...

Ejected wreck victim settles product liability claim with windshield installer.
September 26, 2005... Byline: Brent Baldwin A man who was struck in the rear and ejected from his Chevy Blazer on I-664 in Tidewater has settled a products liability claim for $700,000 against his windshield installer. The man sustained severe, long-term...

Retired Hanover County General District Judge Robert P. Beaver dies Sept. 16.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
September 26, 2005... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Retired Hanover County General District Judge Robert P. Beaver died Sept. 16 after battling cancer. He was 73. A Pennsylvania native, Judge Beaver graduated from Dickinson College. He was offered a...