Posted in Uncategorized on May 1st, 2013
The Supreme Court of Virginia has agreed to consider two cases involving multimillion-dollar verdicts, including an appeal that challenges Virginia’s medical malpractice damages cap for a child’s suit against her mother’s obstetrician. The decision could mean a $5.4-million difference in a medical malpractice recovery for the 11-year-old child who suffered a severe brain injury from [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 18th, 2013
A law firm gets to keep $130,000 in attorney’s fees after a sale of real estate as part of a disputed estate case, the Supreme Court of Virginia said today. Over a protest from the lawyer’s client, a Northampton County Circuit Court had paid the fee to Accomac law firm Ayers & Hartnett PC as [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 18th, 2013
A lawyer discipline case has the Virginia Supreme Court asking when does negligence in prosecuting a criminal case cross the line into incompetence that can be sanctioned by the Virginia State Bar. Last September, the VSB Disciplinary Board affirmed a public reprimand of a Prince George County prosecutor who allegedly pursued criminal charges without probable [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 5th, 2013
Two deputies injured in an auto accident during a drug sting could not sue the criminal suspect for their personal injuries. The Supreme Court of Virginia said that the deputies were acting in the normal course of their professional duties as police officers, and the fireman’s rule barred their suits. The deputies, Steven Kulick and [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized on Apr 5th, 2013
A surgeon and faculty member of Eastern Virginia Medical School will not have to face a suit saying he was negligent in providing post-surgical treatment of a patient’s ischemic leg. On April 5, the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed dismissal of claims against the surgeon, EVMS and Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, and said two resident [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 21st, 2013
Emotions ran high in a Roanoke operating room in November 2009, as a trauma team fought to save the life of a man who had been hit by a tractor-trailer while walking. The trauma surgeon clashed with the anesthesiologist and accused him of giving up on the patient. The surgeon, a vice chair of the [...]
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A mother’s defective legal pleadings prevented her birth-injured daughter from suing for medical malpractice, because the mother joined her daughter’s claim to the mother’s own claim. The suit alleged injuries from shoulder dystocia during the child’s birth on Jan. 1, 2000. Under Va. Code § 8.01-243.1, the child had until her 10th birthday to file [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 11th, 2012
A Portsmouth Circuit Court’s decision to set aside a $3.5 million med-mal award will give the Supreme Court of Virginia a look at liability for a doctor’s practice group when a jury said the doctor was not negligent. In Westermann v. Bermisa, a 24-year-old man went to the defendant doctor on successive days with complaints [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 11th, 2012
The Supreme Court of Virginia has rejected the appeal of a plaintiff who sought to collect damages from a man who had molested him as a youth, and who later resumed a relationship the plaintiff said led to his emotional breakdown. A Virginia statute allows a child who suffered sexual abuse to later sue for [...]
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Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 19th, 2012
A doctor can retry his claim that a drug treatment center violated his privacy rights by sharing his discharge summary with a prospective employer. The Supreme Court of Virginia reversed judgment for the center because the jury was unfairly prejudiced by hearsay evidence. Robert Bruce Evans, M.D., sued Diamond Healthcare of Williamsburg Inc., owner of [...]
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