GAL Can’t Appeal Consensual Termination

ED Award Remanded for Business Valuation

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Domestic Relations, Judge William G. Petty, Virginia Court of Appeals

A divorce court erred in failing to value a business classified as marital, when wife presented evidence that the business had a gross income of $846,499 in 2011 and a gross income of $715,283 in 2010, and the Court of Appeals reverses the court’s equitable distribution award and remands for further proceedings. Where there is [...]

Permanent Disability Timely Asserted

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 11, 2013
Tags: Judge William G. Petty, Virginia Court of Appeals, Workers' Comp

The Court of Appeals affirms the decision of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission awarding permanent partial disability benefits to an employee who claimed permanent partial disability benefits within 36 months as required by Va. Code § 65.2-708; evidence supporting a timely claim can be presented later. In October 2004, employee injured her right leg in [...]

Instrument Accuracy Proof Not Needed

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 19, 2012
Tags: Judge William G. Petty, Traffic Offenses, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals says a certificate of blood alcohol analysis was admissible at defendant’s DWI trial regardless of any alleged error in admitting a certificate of instrument accuracy, and defendant’s conviction of DWI, first offense is affirmed. The certificate of blood alcohol analysis indicated defendant’s blood alcohol content was 0.16 at 1:14 a.m. on [...]

Circumstantial Evidence Backs Robbery, Firearm Convictions

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 6, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Judge William G. Petty, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s robbery and firearm convictions, based on his presence in a vehicle that matched the description of a vehicle that carried four young men allegedly involved in an early-morning street robbery about 15 minutes earlier, and rejects defendant’s claim that the circumstantial evidence was insufficient to convict him on these [...]

Wife’s Spousal Support Upheld

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 29, 2012
Tags: Domestic Relations, Judge William G. Petty, Virginia Court of Appeals

Although husband argues the trial court did not properly consider the parties’ current property interests, the court’s opinion shows the evidence was that neither party had accumulated much of an estate and both continued to have loans and debts, and the Court of Appeals affirms the order requiring husband to pay wife $1,000 in monthly [...]

Consensual Encounter Led to Pat-Down

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 19, 2012
Tags: Judge William G. Petty, Search & Seizure, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals says an officer had a reasonable suspicion to justify a pat-down of defendant, based on defendant’s anger, mood swings and profuse sweating on a winter night, when the officer questioned defendant about what he knew about drug sales and gun violence in the neighborhood. This case began as a consensual encounter. [...]

No ‘Cohabitation’ from Bike & Snowblower Storage

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 19, 2012
Tags: Domestic Relations, Judge William G. Petty, Virginia Court of Appeals

Although wife was involved in a long-term romantic relationship and her boyfriend kept his snowblower and motorcycle at her home, he maintained his own home and did not keep clothing at wife’s home or reside there, and the Court of Appeals upholds the trial court’s denial of husband’s motion to terminate spousal support on the [...]

Formal Service Needed for Agency Review

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 19, 2012
Tags: Administrative, Judge William G. Petty, Virginia Court of Appeals

On rehearing en banc of a circuit court’s dismissal of an appeal challenging revocation of a contractor’s license, the Court of Appeals says Rule 2A:4(a) contemplates formal service of process upon an agency secretary in the same manner as is required for service of a complaint initiating a civil action; the en banc court upholds [...]

Convictions Upheld After Threat Against PD

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 17, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Judge William G. Petty, Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals upholds defendant’s convictions for robbery of a Chesapeake SuperMart, abduction, use of a firearm and unlawfully wearing a mask, and rejects defendant’s appellate claims, including his claim that the trial court should not have allowed another public defender to represent defendant after allowing his first public defender to withdraw after a [...]