Virginia Lawyers Weekly articles from September 2007

Virginia Lawyers Weekly archives from September 2007

Judges cannot defer judgment without OK of Assembly, rules Virginia Court of Appeals.
September 3, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled last week that trial judges lack the authority to defer judgment in criminal cases in the absence of express direction by the General Assembly. The issue long has been a source of...

Chesterfield County circuit court jury returns $1.5M for leg injury.
September 3, 2007... Byline: Sarah Rodriguez A Chesterfield County circuit court jury has awarded $1.5 million to a young man who sustained serious right-leg injuries in a Dinwiddie County car crash. At the time of the collision, Troy Ingraham, 27, worked...

Lease language imposes higher duty on landlord, rules Richmond judge.(Circuit Judge T.J. Markow)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper A Richmond judge has ruled that a provision included in many residential leases can be the basis of a negligence per se claim by a tenant in a lead poisoning case. Circuit Judge T.J. Markow acknowledged that a...

Richmond-based law firm hit with $250K verdict for 'interference'.(Durrette, Bradshaw PLC)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper A Richmond-based law firm has been hit with a verdict of more than $250,000 for tortious interference with contract. Although the jury's verdict came down in February, Norfolk Circuit Judge Charles E. Poston Jr....

Bars review candidates for Supreme Court of Virginia seat.(List)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper The judicial nominations committee of the Virginia State Bar has found nine candidates, including four judges of the Virginia Court of Appeals, to be highly qualified to fill the Supreme Court of Virginia vacancy...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 3, 2007.(United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Medicaid Reimbursement - Supplemental Payments - Emergency Services A health center that serves poor residents on the Eastern Shore of Maryland wins its appeal claiming the...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: September 3, 2007.
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Consumer Protection Fair Credit Reporting Act - Class Action In this consumer protection action under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. Sects. 1681a, the district court grants in part...

How to ... Lease the right office space.
September 3, 2007... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Dolan Media Newswires Looking for new office space for your firm? The process of leasing space for most businesses begins with choosing a commercial real estate broker. "A good broker can advise you...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: September 3, 2007.(United States District Court of Western Virginia)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Attorneys Motion To Withdraw - IP Litigation Two lawyers who have represented plaintiff for over two years in a claim that defendant wrongfully took her idea for Windex wipes will not be...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 3, 2007.
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Tax Evasion - Deferred Judgment A trial court did not err in ruling that it did not have authority to defer findings of guilt in a case in which a company president filed all the...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: September 3, 2007.(Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters Inc.)(Children's Health System Inc.)(Case note)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Sex Offender Registry - Removal Of Information Although "John Doe" successfully petitioned a circuit court under Va. Code Sect. 9.1-900 to be relieved of the requirement to...

Verdicts & Settlements September 3, 2007: UIM coverage applies to 'operators'.(underinsured motorist coverage)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiffs in this auto insurance declaratory judgment action were an adult son and his two parents. The son maintained a residence separate from his parents, but purchased an automobile for them...

Verdicts & Settlements September 3, 2007: Low-impact rear ender results in disputed injury.(Bessie Mae Surber v. William Neiswander)(Brief article)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff After a low-impact, rear-end collision in which the defendant admitted liability, the plaintiff complained primarily of back pain at trial. The evidence was undisputed that the plaintiff had a...

Verdicts & Settlements September 3, 2007: Crash causes disability to plaintiff's right leg.(Troy Ingraham v. James Williams and Gentry Well Works, Inc.)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On August 31, 2004, at approximately 8:15 a.m., the plaintiff was operating a 2002 Ford Ranger and traveling west on Route 460 in Dinwiddie County, approaching the intersection of Route 226. The...

Verdicts & Settlements September 3, 2007:Court finds lack of diligence in serving Maryland defendant.(Arturo Hernandez v. Lisa Awld)(Brief article)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The initial accident occurred on Sept. 21, 2001. Two years later, the plaintiff filed a motion for judgment but never requested service. In November 2005, the plaintiff non-suited the case, and on...

Verdicts & Settlements September 3, 2007:Cause of neck pain, headaches disputed in rear-end accident.(Tara C. Hairston v. Elizabeth A. Renz)(Brief article)
September 3, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff This case involved a rear-end collision which was deemed low-impact by the defendant but high-impact by the plaintiff. The plaintiff had just had a second back surgery, which failed, two weeks prior to...

Virginia Lawyers in the News: September 10, 2007.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Robert G. Ulrich, an appeals court judge from Kansas City, Mo., will begin teaching this fall at the Liberty University law school. He will teach several new courses and help the school develop a center...

Attorneys join virtual law firm.(Wyatt B. Durrette Jr., Wyatt B. Durrette Jr.)
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff A virtual IP litigation boutique? That's the idea behind XDL Group, which includes such prominent Virginia lawyers as Wyatt B. Durrette Jr. of DurretteBradshaw and Charles M. Allen of Goodman,...

Fair Credit claim wins $100K in punitives.(Fair Credit Reporting Act)
September 10, 2007... Byline: Deborah Elkins A credit reporting agency has to pay a consumer $100,000 in punitive damages for failing to reinvestigate false information in a consumer credit report. On Aug. 27, a Richmond federal district court denied Trans...

New time-sheet demands for defense lawyers.(additonal paperwork for attorneys)
September 10, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper The Supreme Court of Virginia returned 3,627 vouchers to court-appointed attorneys in the first two months of the fiscal year because the forms were filled out incorrectly. That's in the context of about 30,000...

Holocaust exhibit funding is a new venture for Virginia Law Foundation.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The Virginia Law Foundation will provide a $100,000 leadership gift for the Nuremberg Courtroom exhibit at the Virginia Holocaust Museum. The VLF also will jointly operate the educational aspects of...

Virginia Lawyers Weekly is seeking 2007's 'Leaders in the Law'.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Virginia Lawyers Weekly is seeking nominees for the 2007 "Leaders in the Law" awards. These awards honor lawyers who are changing practice, advancing the law, im-proving the justice system and...

U.S. Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: September 10, 2007.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Jurisdiction - Burford Abstention - Video Poker - S.C. Law A district court erred in abstaining under Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315 (1943), in refusing to consider...

U.S. District Court VA Eastern Case Summaries: September 10, 2007.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Contract Suit - Stay - Criminal Investigation - Fifth Amendment A contractor being sued by plaintiff for allegedly failing to perform work at several apartment complexes is not...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: September 10, 2007.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure 'Commencement' Of Action - IFP Application - Timely Filing A plaintiff's suit against the U.Va. Medical Center under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act was timely...

Virginia Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: September 10, 2007.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Child Abuse & Neglect Finding - Expert Witness A trial court decision finding appellants' son to be abused and neglected as defined in Va. Code Sect. 16.1-228 is affirmed. ...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: September 10, 2007.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Real Estate Deed Execution - Boundary Adjustment - Specific Performance A mortgage lender in this case, Countrywide Home Loan, did not act unreasonably in delaying execution of an instrument...

Verdicts & Settlements September 10, 2007: Crash fails to delay honeymoon.(Case overview)
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff, a 61-year-old male, was operating his 1995 King F8 box truck southbound on Route 123 at approximately 45 mph. Defendant, who had a blood alcohol content of 0.19 percent, was operating his...

Verdicts & Settlements September 10, 2007: Customer shot, killed by security guard.(Case overview)
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff's decedent was a 16-year-old male with a history of behavioral problems and emotional disturbance. Joseph Sippio, a security guard with less than a year of experience who had qualified to...

Verdicts & Settlements September 10, 2007: 'Alligatored' parking lot causes fall, shoulder injury.(Case overview)
September 10, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff was going to his car to roll his windows up during a rain storm, tripped on a crack in the asphalt and fell heavily on his shoulder. He required a surgical repair and had a permanent injury...

Time-based billing.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Tracy Coenen Dolan Media Newswires A recent survey completed by William G. Ross, professor at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, is ruffling some feathers. Ross has a special interest in billing ethics, and has done...

Oh, brother: Advising a family business.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Thomas D. Davidow Dolan Media Newswires As a family business consultant, I have found lawyers to be some of the smartest professionals with whom I work. As a group, they are highly conceptual and intellectually curious about how to...

How to ... choose office furniture.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Bernadette Starzee Dolan Media Newswires Furniture can have a major effect on how employees feel about the company they work for and their position there. It can also affect their job performance and health. For instance, an...

4th U.S. Circuit of Appeals rules against Virginia Beach-based bank.(Resource Bank)
September 17, 2007... Byline: Paul Fletcher A Virginia Beach-based bank has lost the latest round in its attempt to gain insurance coverage for two class action suits accusing it of sending junk faxes. The suits seek millions of dollars in damages for...

Mental health reform already on the agenda.
September 17, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper Before April 16, mental health policy was such a complex area of the law that legislators tried to avoid it at all costs, according to Del. Phillip A. Hamilton, the Newport News Republican who chairs the House Health,...

Norfolk Circuit Court rules clerk is liable for error by preparer.
September 17, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper In a modern office of a Virginia circuit court clerk, deeds typically are unexamined by human eyes before they are indexed and recorded. Deeds are filed with a cover sheet that contains a bar code with the...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 17, 2007.
September 17, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Guilty Plea Withdrawal - 'Provisional' Acceptance Although a district court told defendant during his Rule 11 plea colloquy that his plea of guilty to a firearm charge was...

U.S. District Court Va. Eastern Case Summaries: September 17, 2007.(Virginia)
September 17, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Post- Petition Interest - Judgment Rate - Ch. 7 A bankruptcy court did not err in applying the federal judgment rate under 28 U.S.C. Sect. 1961(a), not the pre-petition contract...

U.S. District Court Va. Western Case Summaries: September 17, 2007.(Virginia)
September 17, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Stay Pending Appeal - Trustee's Debt Collection A bankruptcy trustee who wants to enforce a half-million dollar judgment he won against Mountain Empire Oil Co. for its occupancy of...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 17, 2007.
September 17, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Malicious Wounding - Indictment Charge - Unlawful Wounding A defendant cannot be convicted of malicious wounding on an indictment that only charged unlawful wounding, but his...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: September 17, 2007.
September 17, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Venue - Forum Selection Clause A contract provision that Tennessee law "shall govern the agreement" and that the "appropriate county or state courts" of Tennessee and "the...

Verdicts & Settlements September 17, 2007: Negligence by midwife alleged in death of infant.
September 17, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff mother gave birth to a stillborn child who was resuscitated in the cesarean section operating room but died four days later Upon becoming pregnant, the mother began care with a practice...

Verdicts & Settlements September 17, 2007: Leak in clothing store roof ruins business's inventory.(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was the owner of a high-end retail clothing store whose business was damaged by water intruding through a faulty roof. The plaintiff asserted that the defendant landlord's failure under...

Verdicts & Settlements September 17,2007: Cyclist injured when driver fails to yield at stop sign.(Brief article)
September 17, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff was riding his 2004 Yamaha motorcycle when he was involved in a wreck on Aug. 7, 2006, at the intersection of Robious and Robindale roads in Chesterfield County. The defendant was driving a...

Commentary: Expedited review of temporary injunctions.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Jeffrey L. Rhodes Last week's edition of Virginia Lawyers Weekly reported the successful use of a little known procedure for requesting expedited review of a temporary injunction prior to final judgment. In that case, a temporary...

Virginia Lawyers in the News: September 24, 2007.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Julie Thrall Burrow has joined the Virginia Beach office of Troutman Sanders LLP as of counsel to its consumer law practice group that includes multi-state trade regulation investigations, litigation...

State of Virginia Law Librarian Gail Warren celebrates court library role.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Deborah Elkins Libraries were a natural habitat for State Law Librarian Gail Warren even before she went to law school. From her early days volunteering in an elementary school library through her work-study job in the...

Va. Supreme Court affirms trial judge's reduction of attorneys' fees.(Virginia; Prince William County Circuit Judge Herman A. Whisenant Jr.)
September 24, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper The Supreme Court of Virginia has affirmed a trial judge's reduction of attorneys' fees awarded in a Northern Virginia breach-of-lease dispute from more than $71,000 to $10,000. The attorneys for West Square LLC,...

Virginia Supreme Court uproots tree rule.(1939 case of Smith v. Holt)
September 24, 2007... Byline: Deborah Elkins Overruling a 68-year-old precedent, the Supreme Court of Virginia has uprooted a rule that limited a neighbor's remedies when confronted by the tree next door. In Fancher v. Fagella (VLW 007-6-098), Richard...

Balancing security and Freedom of Information Act.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper The signs at roads leading to Norfolk International Airport say, "All vehicles entering airport are subject to search." Those signs upset John H. Fenter, a retired nuclear submarine officer described by his attorney...

Va. Supreme Court rules local rule in Norfolk is void, case reinstated.(Virginia)
September 24, 2007... Byline: Alan Cooper A local rule of Norfolk Circuit Court that allowed judges to dismiss cases not served within a year is void because it goes beyond a state law governing the disposition of inactive cases. In Collins v. Shepherd (VLW...

U.S. Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 24, 2007.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Fair Trial - Suggestive Photo Array - Reliable ID A defendant's conviction of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon is affirmed despite his claim that a key witness's...

U.S. District Court Va. Eastern Case Summaries: September 24, 2007.(Virginia)
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Jurisdiction - Removal - Waiver A "land acquisition specialist" who sued his former boss, a developer, in Virginia state court for commissions on property located in an Isle of...

U.S. District Court VA Western Case Summaries: September 24, 2007.(Virginia)
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Jurisdiction - Va. Long- Arm Statute - Copyright In this suit alleging defendant Canadian company has pilfered the design of plaintiff's products (finger splints) and look of...

Virginia Court of Appeals Case Summaries: September 24, 2007.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Beer Franchise - Termination - Notice In this round of litigation over Kirin Brewery's termination of Virginia Imports' beer distributor franchise under Virginia's Beer...

Virginia Circuit Court Case Summaries: September 24, 2007.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Vehicle Solicitation - First Amendment A Herndon Town Ordinance, Division 5, Section 42-135, that prohibits vehicular solicitation of persons seeking employment is struck down,...

Virginia Supreme Court Case Summaries: September 24, 2007.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure GDC Default Judgment - Unlawful Detainer - Appealable Order A circuit court correctly ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to consider a tenant's appeal of a general district...

Verdicts & Settlements September 24, 2007: Confusing lane markings alleged to have caused wreck.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Wrongful death actions were filed on behalf of the driver and two passengers, who alleged that the driver drove across a double yellow line into oncoming traffic due to confusing lane markings and...

Verdicts & Settlements September 24, 2007: Traumatic head injury reduces mental capacity of teen.(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff Infant plaintiff, age 14, was walking to school on the shoulder of a roadway when he was struck from behind by a driver in the scope of his employment. Plaintiff was, for a time, unconscious at the...

Verdicts & Settlements September 24, 2007: Right leg of pedestrian broken at intersection.
September 24, 2007... Byline: Virginia Lawyers Weekly Staff On June 28, 2004, the plaintiff and his family were visiting the resort area of Virginia Beach on vacation from their home in Buffalo, N.Y. At approximately 8 a.m. the plaintiff and his family were...

Commentary: Making the transition from litigation to mediation.
September 24, 2007... Byline: William H. Ledbetter Jr. To most of the legal profession, mediation is counter-intuitive. From our first day in law school, the focus has been on litigation. Why bother learning about a process that seems so different? There are...