Center’s Extra Services Violated Ordinance

Wait for Drug Dog OK after Traffic Stop

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 25, 2013
Tags: Judge Robert J. Smith, Search & Seizure, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Although a defendant stopped for a broken license plate lights says the stop took 37 minutes, the officer’s in-vehicle video camera and the narcotics audio channel transmissions indicate the stop took 16 minutes until a police dog alerted to the car, and the Newport News U.S. District Court denies defendant’s motion to suppress cocaine found [...]

No Padilla Relief for Petitioner

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 20, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Judge Robert J. Smith, Virginia Circuit Courts

A Fairfax Circuit Court denies petitioner relief on a habeas corpus petition or a writ of coram vobis, in which he asserts a claim based on Padilla v. Kentucky. Petitioner is a Peruvian citizen and legal permanent resident of the U.S. On Feb. 11, 2008, he entered an Alford plea of guilty to a charge [...]

Foreign divorce, domestic fight

By Peter Vieth
Published: September 3, 2012
Tags: Domestic Relations, General Assembly, Judge Robert J. Smith, Virginia Court of Appeals News

When Tahira Naseer’s husband in Pakistan wanted to end their marriage, he declared three times that he divorced her, in accordance with Islamic law. After Naseer remarried and moved to Virginia with her new husband, a Virginia court had to decide if the divorce under Islamic law would protect Naseer from a later charge of [...]

Judge rejects entire defense after spoliation

By Peter Vieth
Published: May 3, 2012
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Robert J. Smith, Personal Injury

Judges can come down hard on litigants who hide or destroy evidence, but they rarely pull the plug on a defendant’s entire liability defense. That’s what a Fairfax Circuit judge did in a supermarket slip-and-fall case that went to trial last year. Circuit Judge Robert J. Smith lowered the boom on Safeway Inc., after finding [...]

No ‘Publication’ for Defamation Claims

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 2, 2012
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Robert J. Smith, Tort, Virginia Circuit Courts

In this suit by three employees discharged by defendant IBM, the Fairfax Circuit Court sustains demurrers filed by IBM and individual defendants to plaintiffs’ claims for defamation, conspiracy, tortious interference and negligent retention, arising from allegations that plaintiffs were terminated because one plaintiff purportedly violated IBM policy by hiring her brother and then trying to [...]

Lawyer mismanaged assets, is convicted of embezzlement

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 16, 2012
Tags: Alexandria Circuit Court, Elder Law, Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, Judge Robert J. Smith, Lawyer Discipline, Virginia State Bar

A Falls Church lawyer has been convicted of embezzlement after being ordered to reimburse more than $275,000 in excess fees she charged for management of an elderly couple’s assets, according the Virginia State Bar and court records. A 2009 report by the Fairfax County commissioner of accounts found Erin Weber Anderson, now known as Erin [...]

Suit After Foreclosure Time-Barred

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 13, 2012
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Robert J. Smith, Real Estate, Virginia Circuit Courts

A title company’s claim, as subrogee of a mortgage company, against a defendant accrued when defendant did not meet its contractual obligation to secure the mortgage company’s security interest in the property with a first-priority deed of trust, and a Fairfax Circuit Court grants defendant’s plea in bar because the claim is time-barred. On May [...]

Antique Vehicle Collection is Illegal Junk Yard

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 28, 2011
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Robert J. Smith, Virginia Circuit Courts, Zoning

Although a property owner says the antique vehicle collection on his Fairfax County property is his hobby, the Fairfax Circuit Court upholds the Board of Zoning Appeals decision that the collection is an illegal junk yard under the local zoning ordinance. The owner complains the BZA did not make specific findings of fact in ruling [...]

Invalid Consent to Search After Traffic Stop

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 25, 2011
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Robert J. Smith, Search & Seizure, Virginia Circuit Courts

A police officer on a traffic stop who followed up his “have a good night” dismissal of the driver with a request to search the driver’s vehicle, and who directed a passenger to sit on the curb during the search while one of the two armed officers stood between the vehicle and the passenger, did [...]