Change of venue? VSB weighing new locations for 2014 meeting

Bench temps: Substitute judges fill gaps across the state

By Peter Vieth
Published: June 19, 2013

When it comes to filling temporary vacancies on the bench, Virginia may not have such a deep bench. A sizeable number of lawyers sit as substitute judges all over the commonwealth, and court clerks say they depend on the extra help to keep courts running when the local court roster is reduced by illness, vacation [...]

Lawyers can’t get driver information to solicit clients, says high court

Lawyers who wanted to use drivers’ personal information to solicit new clients for consumer lawsuits could not rely on an exception to a federal privacy law, the U.S. Supreme Court said June 17. The “litigation exception” in the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994 allows this “sensitive infor¬mation to be used for investigation in anticipation [...]

Diversity panel gets seat at the VSB table

By Peter Vieth
Published: June 14, 2013

VIRGINIA BEACH – The Virginia State Bar’s Diversity Conference has gained access to the VSB’s top policy body. The VSB Council voted 62-5 June 13 to give the three-year-old Diversity Conference representation on the bar’s Executive Committee. The decision puts the diversity body on equal footing with other VSB conferences in its voice on management [...]

Marketing: How to eat an elephant

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: June 13, 2013
Tags: Legal Marketing

During the last few years, it has been ever more common to hear lawyers say, with more than a hint of frustration and worry in their voices: “What’s the point of doing a marketing plan? Why bother trying to forecast trends and predict results when you’re riding the rollercoaster of this uncertain economy?” The short [...]

Corporate rep must go first in depositions, judge rules

By Peter Vieth
Published: June 12, 2013
Tags: Virginia Circuit Courts

A Virginia circuit court judge has ruled that a railroad’s corporate representative must sit for a deposition before the injured railroad worker is deposed in the worker’s lawsuit under the Federal Employers Liability Act. The unusual ruling comes in a case in which the injured worker was unable to see the circumstances that allegedly led [...]

Twelve seek federal district court bench seat

By Peter Vieth
Published: June 11, 2013
Tags: Federal Courts, Judgeships

The Virginia State Bar reports 12 people have applied to be evaluated by the VSB’s Judicial Candidate Evaluation Committee for the Eastern District vacancy to be created when U.S. District Judge James Spencer takes senior status next year. The names are: Albert, Alan D. Carr, Dabney J., IV Fountain, Edwin L. Gill, Paul G. Heretick, [...]

Credit bureau may face ‘willful’ violation claim

By Correy E. Stephenson
Published: June 10, 2013
Tags: Consumer Protection, Federal Courts, Judge John A. Gibney Jr.

A credit reporting agency may face a trial on a claim for “willful” violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act because it did not come clean on sources of information for a plaintiff’s damaging credit report. Michael Dreher learned about the bad credit report during a 2010 security clearance background check by the federal government [...]

DNA ruling leaves states to fill in the blanks

By Kimberly Atkins
Published: June 10, 2013
Tags: Criminal, U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing police to collect DNA samples from arrestees before they are convicted, or even arraigned, could lead to a flood of legal challenges across the country as courts in states with differing laws on warrantless pre-conviction DNA sampling — or no laws at all — consider just how [...]

Ex-wife, not widow, gets death benefits

By Dolan Media Newswires
Published: June 10, 2013
Tags: Employment, Insurance, Supreme Court of Virginia News, U.S. Supreme Court

It’s fair to assume Warren Hillman never intended for the proceeds of his federal employee life insurance policy to go to his ex-wife when he died unexpectedly in 2008. But whatever Warren intended doesn’t matter. That’s because the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the only thing that matters is that he did not change [...]