New zoning cases ‘reconcilable,’ land use lawyer says

Supreme Court hears lawyer-blogger’s appeal

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 9, 2013
Tags: Constitutional, Justice Cleo E. Powell, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Justice William C. Mims, Lawyer Discipline, Rules of Professional Conduct, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia State Bar

Lawyer-blogger Horace Hunter faced the Supreme Court of Virginia Jan. 8 in the appeal of his disciplinary case, and he said anything he wrote about his clients’ cases is absolutely protected by the First Amendment. First Amendment scholar Rodney Smolla made the case by arguing that Hunter’s blog is not commercial speech, but political speech [...]

Getting to the jury on ‘capacity’ for will

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 14, 2012
Tags: Alexandria Circuit Court, Justice Cleo E. Powell, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Justice Donald W. Lemons, Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr., Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn, Justice William C. Mims, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Wills & Trusts

Call it a finger on the scale of justice. The law sometimes gives an advantage to one side in a lawsuit, allowing a legal “presumption” about some key fact in the case. Presumptions can be overcome, but how much weight it takes, who gets to make the call, and what happens afterward have been open [...]

‘A new standard of liability’ in Virginia?

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 9, 2012
Tags: Employment, Federal Courts, Judge James C. Turk, Justice Cleo E. Powell, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Justice Donald W. Lemons, Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr., Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn, Justice William C. Mims, Supreme Court of Virginia News

The Supreme Court of Virginia has opened the door to claims against individual supervisors who take part in the unlawful firing of an employee. The Nov. 1 decision in VanBuren v. Grubb (VLW 012-6-143), decided 4-3, is a victory for a nurse who claimed she was groped, propositioned and then fired by an orthopedic surgeon [...]

No Narrow Intent in Restrictive Covenant

By Deborah Elkins
Published: November 7, 2012
Tags: Justice William C. Mims, Real Estate, Supreme Court of Virginia

A circuit court did not err in granting a property owner summary judgment to allow subdivision of her four lots into eight smaller lots, rejecting appellee’s claim that the subdivision violated the restrictive covenant against subdivision because it did not comply with the 1997 subdivision ordinance’s requirement that any private street connect to a public [...]

HOA Pays Fees in Parking-Space Case

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 21, 2012
Tags: Justice William C. Mims, Real Estate, Supreme Court of Virginia

A homeowners’ association Declaration that allowed assignment of “a maximum of two parking spaces” within the common area requires spaces to be assigned equally among all lot owners, not unequally allocated among owners with and without garages, and the Supreme Court of Virginia upholds a circuit court decision for plaintiff owners as well as an [...]

No Showing Witness was ‘Unavailable’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: June 18, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Justice William C. Mims, Supreme Court of Virginia

A defendant’s malicious wounding conviction is reversed because the trial court erred in holding a witness who testified at a preliminary hearing was “unavailable” at trial due to a faulty memory; the Virginia Supreme Court majority does not reach the question whether defendant’s former defense counsel violated professional ethics rules when he testified at trial [...]

No Easement Issue from Buried Tank, Well

By Deborah Elkins
Published: June 13, 2012
Tags: Justice William C. Mims, Real Estate, Supreme Court of Virginia

In dispute over a 30-foot easement on property on Lake Anna, a buried propane tank and well did not constitute an unreasonable interference with the easement owners’ rights, and the Supreme Court of Virginia reverses the contrary decision by the circuit court and an award of attorney’s fees. A servient landowner may not effectively narrow [...]

Transcript Comes In as ‘Clerical Error’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: June 13, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Justice William C. Mims, Supreme Court of Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia says the Court of Appeals erred in declining to consider a transcript that was not filed within the 60-day period in Rule 5A:8(a) but that ostensibly was made part of the record by the circuit court under Va. Code § 8.01-428(B) and Rule 5A:9 as the correction of a clerical [...]

‘Turner’ case on lawyer testimony is remanded

By Paul Fletcher and Peter Vieth
Published: June 8, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Judge C. Peter Tench, Justice Donald W. Lemons, Justice William C. Mims, Newport News Circuit Court, Supreme Court of Virginia News

A closely watched case about a lawyer who testified against his ex-client has been remanded – but not on the grounds that observers were expecting. In Turner v. Commonwealth (VLW 012-6-089), the high court said that a trial judge in Newport News failed to use the right test to determine whether a witness was “unavailable” [...]