2008 October 13 | Virginia Lawyers Weekly

The ‘Leaders’ Class of 2008

By Paul Fletcher
Published: October 13, 2008

Virginia Lawyers Weekly is pleased to announce the Class of 2008 in the “Leaders in Law” program.
The project seeks to recognize lawyers who accomplished something significant in the past year – those who changed practice, advanced the law or improved the justice system in Virginia. These lawyers are the ones setting the standard for other [...]

NoVa condo buyers stuck with deal, however bad

By Alan Cooper
Published: October 13, 2008

U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee could well understand why purchasers of condos in the Merrifield Town Center in Northern Virginia might want to get out of contracts they had signed in June 2005.
“In the intervening months, our economy is in a tailspin, the real estate market softened, there is a surplus of available condominiums,” [...]

Providing ignorant company rep was abuse

By Peter Vieth
Published: October 13, 2008

In what could be called the “Case of the Clueless Corporate Representative,” a company sued for wrongful termination won’t be able to claim it fired a man for financial reasons.
The company provided a company witness at a deposition, but that corporate representative could not speak about its financial condition or explain how it related to [...]

Divorce cases: when and how to use vocational experts

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 13, 2008

WILLIAMSBURG — The easiest way to get a divorce court to impute income to a spouse is to show the spouse chose to leave a specific, higher-paying job.
A case in point came down last week, when the Virginia Court of Appeals affirmed a child support order that imputed income to a wife based on the [...]

How to conduct your own technology audit

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: October 13, 2008

By Lee S. Rosen
Technology gurus have spent years marketing, selling, and convincing us to add more and more technological tools to our lives.
Many of us are old enough to remember that when we began our law practices, we prepared documents with typewriters and dictated on to tape. When we went home, we listened to music [...]

Inmate indicted for unsolved murders, rape from the 1980s

By News in Brief
Published: October 13, 2008

ROANOKE—A grand jury has returned indictments against a prison inmate whom prosecutors linked through DNA evidence to two unsolved murders and a rape from the 1980s.
The Roanoke Circuit Court panel charged William Ray Hagy, who is serving a 50-year prison sentence for the rape of a 14-year-old girl in 1984. He faces charges of [...]

U.Va. drops sign ban

By News in Brief
Published: October 13, 2008

“Our football team needs our support right now and that should be our collective focus. With that in mind, I am repealing immediately the policy prohibiting signs, banners and flags in all athletics venues.” So said U.Va. athletics director Craig Littlepage on Oct. 2, , admitting that the sign ban had become a “distraction.”
Two possible [...]

Wilkins leaves 4th Circuit for South Carolina law firm

By News in Brief
Published: October 13, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C.—Former 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge William “Billy”’ Wilkins is joining a Columbia law firm as a partner.
Nexsen Pruet board chairman Leighton Lord said Monday that Wilkins will work in the firm’s office in Greenville, Wilkins’ hometown.
Lord said Wilkins will work in the firm’s white collar crime, appellate advocacy and corporate [...]

Loudoun to assist employees in buyed foreclosed homes

By News in Brief
Published: October 13, 2008

LEESBURG—Loudoun County officials are coming up with plans to help public employees buy foreclosed homes.
The program would provide $5,000 grants to county and school system workers to use in purchasing a foreclosed property in the county. Officials are working on the proposal, which a Board of Supervisors committee is expected to take up next month.
The [...]

Supreme Court nixes appeal of ex-prof

By News in Brief
Published: October 13, 2008

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from a former Florida professor once accused of being a top Palestinian terrorist.
The high court’s decision last week means that Sami Al-Arian, who once taught at the University of South Florida, is a step closer to facing trial in Northern Virginia for refusing to testify to [...]