Chapter 6: Special Features and Practice Area Pages
Published: May 26, 2008
This chapter focuses on the Special Features section and the Practice Area pages.
Special Features
Each year, VLW publishes a number of unique projects which provide valuable information to the legal community. On our Web site, we’ve created a section which houses the online version of each of these features. Special Features can be accessed through the [...]
Domestic Relations - Attorney Fees - Appeals - O’Loughlin 
Published: May 26, 2008
Although Virginia divorce jurisprudence gives the Court of Appeals discretion to award attorney’s fees in an appeal, to be determined in the trial court on remand, O’Loughlin v. O’Loughlin says nothing about a trial court’s ability to enforce the parties’ contract for payment of all litigation fees and costs, and an Orange County Circuit Court [...]
Workers’ Comp - Dismissal With Prejudice - Commission Deference
Published: May 26, 2008
The Workers’ Compensation Commis-sion was not required to defer to the decision by the deputy commissioner that this claim for benefits should be dismissed with prejudice, which the full commission held was too severe a penalty appropriate in case of abuse of the procedural process or deliberate disregard of the commission’s authority; the Court of [...]
Criminal - Assault On Wife - Continuance - Witness Appearance
Published: May 26, 2008
The Court of Appeals holds that a defendant convicted of assault on a family member (his wife), third offense, cannot overturn his conviction with a claim that the trial court abused its discretion by forcing him to withdraw his motion to a continuance to procure four defense witnesses who did not appear for trial [...]
Criminal - Drug Distribution - School Property
Published: May 26, 2008
A defendant who was passing out heroin capsules in exchange for money in a Portsmouth housing project within 1,000 feet of a school has his convictions under Va. Code §§ 18.2-248 and 18.2-255.2 affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
The drug transactions were directly observed by police. An officer observed defendant take the suspected heroin [...]
Criminal - Larceny - Property Value
Published: May 26, 2008
A defendant’s challenge to his conviction for grand larceny is rejected because the record reflects that on this particular count, defendant in fact was convicted of petit larceny, so his claim the stolen property did not meet the $200 threshold for grand larceny is “self-defeating,” the Court of Appeals says.
Petit larceny conviction affirmed.
Valentine v. Commonwealth [...]
Criminal - Stolen Property - Valuation - Lottery Tickets
Published: May 26, 2008
A defendant who presented stolen, winning lottery tickets to two different stores that each paid defendant $105 in cash from store funds is guilty of receipt of stolen property, but can only be convicted of two misdemeanor convictions, as the commonwealth concedes in this opinion from the Court of Appeals.
The commonwealth concedes the evidence failed [...]
Criminal - Murder - Insanity Defense - Malingering
Published: May 26, 2008
At defendant’s trial for strangling then decapitating his aunt, the trial court did not err in admitting into evidence a letter found in defendant’s personal effects in his jail cell, which he shared with no one else, that detailed plans to assert that demons had inspired him to commit the murder; the Court of Appeals [...]
Criminal - Murder - Hearsay - State-Of-Mind Exception
Published: May 26, 2008
Even assuming the trial court erred in allowing as “state of mind” evidence testimony from a co-worker of defendant’s roommate that defendant had earlier put a gun to the roommate’s head, admitting the testimony was harmless error in light of the overwhelming evidence that defendant fatally shot his roommate after he said the roommate swiped [...]
Workers’ Comp - Brain Injury - Treating Physician Report
Published: May 26, 2008
A claimant who suffered a compensable traumatic brain injury has her workers’ comp benefits reinstated on evidence from her treating physician that her condition had deteriorated after she stopped taking a particular medication since the employer’s IME released claimant to light-duty work, and the Court of Appeals affirms reinstatement of benefits.
In reinstating claimant’s award of [...]
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