Student scores $5M verdict against The Virginian-Pilot

State Employee Wins Reinstatement & Back Pay

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 23, 2011
Tags: Chesapeake Circuit Court, Employment, Judge John W. Brown, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Chesapeake Circuit Court reinstates with back pay a Department of Corrections captain who was fired after testing positive for marijuana. Petitioner appeals a final decision upholding his termination from the Department of Corrections for a positive marijuana result to a non-random oral swab drug test on April 15, 2009. Because the test leading to [...]

Corrections officer fired after positive test for marijuana – $120,000 Verdict

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: August 8, 2011
Tags: Chesapeake Circuit Court, Employment, Judge John W. Brown

Plaintiff, a former captain at the Indian Creek Correctional Center in Chesapeake, was randomly selected for urinalysis testing in December 2008, his 15th drug test since joining the agency in 1994. Several days later, the human resources department was advised that petitioner’s test returned as a negative dilute. Agency policy required the department to immediately [...]

State employee fired after drug test wins reinstatement, back pay

By Alan Cooper
Published: August 2, 2011
Tags: Administrative, Chesapeake Circuit Court, Employment, Judge John W. Brown

A Chesapeake judge has reinstated with back pay a Department of Corrections captain who was fired after testing positive for marijuana. The employer ran afoul of its own drug-testing policy, according to the court’s decision on appeal from the state grievance process. An initial urinalysis that showed some dilution of the test sample might have [...]

It’s all in the detailing

By Peter Vieth
Published: July 11, 2011
Tags: Chesapeake Circuit Court, Contract, Judge John W. Brown

Phillip Meyer thought he was playing by the rules. Meyer wanted to do things right when he left his job with an auto-detailing business in Chesapeake to start his own detailing company in 2009. Meyer now runs A Clear Solution LLC, a mobile auto reconditioning service. He said he touches up door dings, bumper scratches [...]

Non-Solicitation Clause Struck as ‘Overbroad’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 6, 2011
Tags: Chesapeake Circuit Court, Employment, Judge John W. Brown, Virginia Circuit Courts

An auto-detailing business cannot recover from its former employer who made plans to start a competing business while still employed by plaintiff; a Chesapeake Circuit Court says plaintiff’s non-solicitation clause is facially overbroad because it would prevent defendant from offering his services as a “concert promoter, fishing guide, sous chef or plumber,” and plaintiff has [...]

Bus passenger suffers fibromyalgia from crash – $180,000 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: May 30, 2011
Tags: Chesapeake Circuit Court, Personal Injury

On June 5, 2006, plaintiff, a 28-year-old unemployed mother of three young children, was the sole passenger on a bus which was twice struck in the same accident by a truck carrying liquids. At a hospital emergency room, plaintiff complained of bilateral knee pain, right arm, left leg and right hip pain. X-rays of her [...]

Workers’ comp an issue in fall on hospital steps – $112,500 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: May 16, 2011
Tags: Chesapeake Circuit Court, Premises Liability

On July 22, 2008, plaintiff was employed part-time as a CPR coordinator and health educator at a subdivision of the defendant hospital, located in South Hampton Roads. She completed her shift, clocked out for the day and walked over to the main hospital building to have lunch with her coworkers and teenage son, who was [...]

Motorist suffers radiculopathy from crash at intersection – $200,000 Verdict

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: February 28, 2011
Tags: Chesapeake Circuit Court, Judge Marjorie T. Arrington, Personal Injury

This was intersection accident in which the defendant ran a red light and broadsided the plaintiff’s vehicle. Plaintiff was taken to the emergency room and discharged. The X-rays were negative. Plaintiff followed up 10 days later with a primary care physician with complaints of concussion-like symptoms and back and neck pain. Plaintiff was referred to [...]

Student says paper defamed him with bullying allegation – $5,000,000 Verdict

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: February 21, 2011
Tags: Chesapeake Circuit Court, Defamation, Judge Randall D. Smith

A newspaper article about an assault case falsely stated that a high school athlete routinely bullied another student at Great Bridge High School. The article reported accurately that the plaintiff had been convicted of assaulting the father of the student who said he had been bullied, and that the plaintiff’s brother had been convicted of [...]