The latest news and cases from the Supreme Court of Virginia
">Court takes up sovereign immunity case Posted in Civil Cases, Writs Granted on Jun 29th, 2010
The Supreme Court of Virginia has granted a writ in a wrongful death drowning case where a judge held the claims against the city of Lexington fell short of gross negligence. The case arose from the 2006 drowning death of a 16-year-old boy below a dam on the Maury River in a city park. Circuit [...]
">Supreme Court grants 14 appeals Posted in Civil Cases, Criminal Cases, Writs Granted on Jun 15th, 2010
Two statute of limitations cases, one involving an allegation of legal malpractice, are among the 14 granted appeals the Supreme Court of Virginia has posted on its Web site this month. The SOL cases are Laura Anna Head Kelley v. Pirsch & Associates PLLC (100446), which raises the issue of whether the three-year statute for [...]
">Child-restraint law no bar to common law negligence claim Posted in Civil Cases, Supreme Court Opinions on Jun 10th, 2010
A state law that says it is not negligent to fail to restrain a child in a vehicle does not abrogate the common law duty to protect the child, a divided Supreme Court of Virginia holds today. Four-year-old Hannah Leigh Evans was seriously injured in a head-on collision after her father put her in a [...]
">Supreme Court sets test for waiver of attorney-client privilege Posted in Civil Cases, Supreme Court Opinions on Jun 10th, 2010
The Supreme Court of Virginia adopts today a five-part test for determining whether an inadvertent disclosure of a document covered by the attorney-client privilege waives the privilege. The issue in Walton v. Mid-Atlantic Spine Specialists PC arose after a letter from an orthopedic surgeon to his attorney was copied by a company the surgeon’s practice [...]
">Case pits Wall Street Journal against state dailies Posted in Civil Cases on Jun 7th, 2010
Seven Virginia circuit judges have set aside orders at the request of major newspapers in the state even though they concluded that the newspapers lacked standing to challenge the orders. At least one judge, Virginia Beach Circuit Judge A. Bonwill Shockley, refused to do so, however, and her case is the one that was before [...]
">Lemons gets top Inns of Court position Posted in Justices on Jun 1st, 2010
Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald W. Lemons has been elected president of the board of trustees of the American Inns of Court. Lemons succeeds Robert K. Walsh, dean emeritus of the Wake Forest University law school. He joined the Supreme Court in 2000 after serving on the Richmond Circuit Court and the Virginia Court of [...]
