Wrongful Death Verdict Is ‘Excessive’

Single Photo ID Not too Suggestive

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 1, 2012
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, Criminal, Judge Edward Hogshire, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Charlottesville Circuit Court denies defendant’s motion to suppress an out-of-court identification of him by the alleged victim as the intruder into the victim’s home, following discovery of a photo identification card bearing defendant’s picture outside near the driveway to the victim’s home. Defendant alleges the single photograph procedure used by the officer was unduly [...]

Court Allows Respondeat Superior Amendment

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 2, 2012
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, Judge Edward Hogshire, Negligence, Virginia Circuit Courts

Plaintiff may amend her negligence suit to plead respondeat superior, as the Charlottesville Circuit Court reconsiders its earlier decision and says respondeat superior is not a new cause of action for statute of limitations purposes, but a legal theory of liability. In this case, if respondeat superior is a separate action from the underlying negligence [...]

Defendant’s Drive-Time Talk Comes In

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 2, 2012
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, Criminal, Judge Edward Hogshire, Virginia Circuit Courts

An embezzlement defendant who was being transported by a police officer from a Golden Corral restaurant in Baltimore to jail cannot suppress inculpatory responses he gave to an officer’s questions about where defendant lived and why he was working in Baltimore, as the Charlottesville Circuit Court holds the drive-time conversation was not a custodial interrogation. [...]

Traffic Ordinance Challenge Fails

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 27, 2012
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, Judge Edward Hogshire, Traffic Offenses, Virginia Circuit Courts

Six traffic defendants all charged with driving 50-55 mph in a 35 mph zone on the Route 250 Bypass in Charlottesville cannot avoid conviction by mounting a challenge to how the city of Charlottesville adopted the local ordinance that lowered the speed limit in what would ordinarily be a 55-mph zone, and the Charlottesville Circuit [...]

Looking back on 2011: The year in legal news

By Paul Fletcher and Peter Vieth
Published: December 12, 2011
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judge Edward Hogshire, Judge Thomas D. Horne, Justice Cleo E. Powell, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Justice Lawrence L. Koontz Jr., Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn, Law Schools, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Sanctions, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia State Bar

The reversal of a 20-year-old noncompete case lead the case news from Virginia Lawyers in 2011. Much of the first half of year featured news from the General Assembly. Officials at the Virginia State Bar sparred with legislators over $5 million that Gov. Bob McDonnell wanted to take. And the Hernandez case – which allowed [...]

Social media: Ignore at your own risk

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 14, 2011
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, Judge Margaret P. Spencer, Personal Injury, Richmond Circuit Court, Social Media, Technology

Maybe you’re blasé about blogs, turned off by tweets, skeptical of the whole social media scene. That hands-off policy may hurt you and your client. Lawyers no longer have the luxury of ignoring social media, even if they choose not to use it personally or professionally. Clients are using these online tools and more. Facebook [...]

Court orders record sanction against Charlottesville lawyer

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 9, 2011
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, Judge Edward Hogshire, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Sanctions, Wrongful Death

In what appears to be the final trial court chapter of a tangled Charlottesville legal saga, a judge has imposed $542,000 in sanctions against attorney Matthew B. Murray for hiding evidence and trying to deflect blame for lapses in his disclosures to the court. The monetary penalty is a record for sanctions against a lawyer [...]

Judge OKs medical records in lacrosse slaying case

By The Associated Press
Published: November 8, 2011
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, Criminal, Judge Edward Hogshire

CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP) Attorneys for a University of Virginia lacrosse player charged with killing a female lacrosse star will be allowed to examine her medical records, a judge ruled Monday. Charlottesville Circuit Judge Edward Hogshire ruled after an hour-long, private session with both sides that attorneys for George Huguely, 24, of Chevy Chase, Md., could review [...]

Juror in Charlottesville death case bites back

By Peter Vieth
Published: October 20, 2011
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, Judge Edward Hogshire, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Wrongful Death

A letter from a juror who took part in a record-breaking verdict offers a rare look inside the jury deliberation process and a harsh critique for many involved in the trial, including the judge. Both the plaintiff’s and defendants’ lawyers get knocked for their courtroom style, and the judge is taken to task for his [...]