Virginia high court resurrects Rules of Evidence

‘Actual Notice’ Unnecessary for Default

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 7, 2012
Tags: Civil Procedure, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Supreme Court of Virginia

A trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to set aside a laundry service’s default judgment against a hospital company that could not account for its failure to respond to proper service of process on the Secretary of the Commonwealth; a trial court is not required to find “actual notice” to a defendant [...]

Ex-Wife, Not Widow, Gets Life Insurance

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 18, 2012
Tags: Domestic Relations, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Supreme Court of Virginia

An employee’s ex-wife collects his life insurance benefits after his death as the named beneficiary of a Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance policy because federal law preempts Va. Code § 20-111.1(D), which otherwise would make the ex-wife liable to her ex-husband’s widow for those benefits; the Virginia Supreme Court reverses the decision for the widow. [...]

Oil Spill Law Does Not Cover ‘Passive’ Discharge

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 17, 2012
Tags: Environmental, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Supreme Court of Virginia

A county does not have to compensate the owners of a 165-acre “manufactured home” park for its contamination of groundwater by leachate and gas from an adjacent county landfill, as the Supreme Court of Virginia says Virginia’s Oil Discharge Law “does not apply to the passive, gradual seepage of leachate and landfill gas into groundwater,” [...]

House panel quizzes judges on Hernandez

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 14, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, General District Courts, Hernandez, Judge Michael S. Irvine, Judge Norman A. Thomas, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Supreme Court of Virginia

Several judges seeking reelection by the 2012 General Assembly have run into trouble over criminal disposition issues raised during interviews Dec. 9 before a panel of the House Courts of Justice Committee. Committee members alerted incumbent judges last April to be prepared to discuss their reliance on the Virginia Supreme Court’s January decision in Hernandez [...]

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 [...]

Judges say ‘mental health dockets’ are just a way to organize caseloads

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 22, 2011
Tags: General District Courts, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser

Judges in Richmond and Petersburg say they will continue to maintain mental health dockets in general district court, despite a Nov. 16 memo from Virginia Chief Justice Cynthia D. Kinser suggesting some specialized court programs in Virginia may lack General Assembly approval. Richmond General District Judge Robert Pustilnik said his mental health docket simply groups [...]

Counting cases, and buying time

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 21, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Judicial Boundaries, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser

Virginia’s court system may have won some breathing room from a threat of wholesale redistricting by the state legislature, for this year at least. Last year, two bills were introduced that would have redrawn existing judicial circuit and district boundaries and reduced the number of judges authorized by the Virginia Code from 402 to 382. [...]

Med-mal case dismissed, out-of-state lawyer at fault

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 10, 2011
Tags: Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Justice Donald W. Lemons, Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr., Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn, Justice William C. Mims, Medical Malpractice, Supreme Court of Virginia News

Missteps by a Missouri lawyer cost a Virginia medical malpractice plaintiff the chance to prove her claim against a Richmond hospital in a case decided this month by the Supreme Court of Virginia. The court offered no remedy for the patient whose lawsuit was dismissed because her out-of-state lawyer was derelict in disclosures about experts [...]

Kinser: Don’t tinker with Rules of Evidence

By Peter Vieth
Published: October 12, 2011
Tags: Bar Associations, General Assembly, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Rules of Evidence, Supreme Court of Virginia News

ROANOKE–Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Cynthia D. Kinser urged the General Assembly to vote thumbs-up or down on the court’s newly endorsed Rules of Evidence without any tweaking of individual rules. The court presented the rules to the Virginia Code Commission earlier this month, and in remarks to the Roanoke Bar Association Tuesday, Kinser said [...]