Plaintiff claims hospital fall led to brain injury – $3,500,000 Verdict 
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: January 21, 2013
Tags: Judge Timothy S. Fisher, Medical Malpractice, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Newport News Circuit Court
An 81-year-old total hip replacement patient fell while undergoing in-patient treatment at Riverside Hospital, fracturing her femur and hitting head. Twenty hours later, plaintiff suffered a mild cerebral stroke, which extended during orthopedic surgical repair under general anesthesia, causing permanent hemiplegia. Riverside had previously assessed the plaintiff as a high fall risk, but failed to [...]
A return to ‘Riverside’ 
By Peter Vieth
Published: January 3, 2013
Tags: Judge Timothy S. Fisher, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Newport News Circuit Court, Personal Injury
An 87-year-old hospital patient injured in a fall has won a $3.5 million verdict against a Newport News hospital using high resolution imaging to dramatize alleged brain injuries for the jury. An appeal of Shirley Burrell’s verdict against the owner of Riverside Regional Medical Center could offer a ruling on the admission of hospital policies [...]
Crash survivor left with 58 percent whole-person impairment – $5,000,000 Settlement 
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: August 13, 2012
Tags: Million-Dollar Settlements, Newport News Circuit Court, Personal Injury
The defendant driver was operating a construction company truck on a narrow, unmarked road in Gloucester, when he veered left of center and struck the plaintiff head-on. Plaintiff, a 41-year-old married and unemployed woman, had her car’s engine thrown into her lap by the crash. Both drivers ended up with retrograde amnesia about the event. [...]
Case settles, major sanctions award lifted by judge 
By Peter Vieth
Published: July 19, 2012
Tags: Judge H. Vincent Conway, Newport News Circuit Court, Sanctions, Workers' Comp
By Peter Vieth A Newport News judge agreed to drop heavy sanctions against a major railroad in a recent employee injury lawsuit after the railroad settled the worker’s claim. The case highlights conflicting public policy issues involved when litigants contend that peace on the battlefield justifies undoing a court-ordered penalty. The judge’s decision reversed a [...]
‘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” [...]
Condemnation resulted in total loss of utility for bank branch building – $1,015,555 Settlement 
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: June 4, 2012
Tags: Eminent Domain, Million-Dollar Settlements, Newport News Circuit Court
In 2003, the transportation commissioner filed certificates of take for nine parcels held by landowners, who later conveyed three of those parcels to the respondents in this case. The take was part of the Warwick Boulevard widening project in Newport News. Taken from the three parcels was 22,131 square feet of land, permanent easements of [...]
McDonald’s restaurant forced to close after taking of land – $614,534 Settlement 
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: May 28, 2012
Tags: Eminent Domain, Newport News Circuit Court
In 2003, the transportation commissioner filed certificates of take for nine parcels held by the landowners, Hiden Associates and Hussey Associates, as part of the Warwick Boulevard widening project in Newport News. McDonald’s intervened as a tenant as to one parcel, and issues pertaining to that parcel were litigated separately. From this parcel, 9,738 square [...]
Asbestos case tried under maritime and wrongful death law – $9,182,906 Verdict 
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: March 19, 2012
Tags: Judge David F. Pugh, Maritime, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Newport News Circuit Court, Wrongful Death
A 68-year-old retired shipyard worker died from mesothelioma, which was allegedly caused by his use of John Crane Inc.’s asbestos gaskets and packing at the Newport News Shipyard, where he worked as a pipefitter and pipefitter foreman from 1962 to 1968. Prior to trial, John Crane had moved that the case be tried under Virginia [...]
Arbitrator finds proof of TBI in auto-accident case – $740,000 Arbitration Award 
By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: February 20, 2012
Tags: Newport News Circuit Court, Personal Injury
The contested issue was whether plaintiff suffered anything more than strains and a concussion that resolved in a very short period. Plaintiff had base-line neuropsychological testing done years earlier for the purpose of vocational testing, and was found to be in the 99th percentile in intellectual functioning. Post-accident testing showed a decline in intellectual functioning [...]
Appeal examines lawyer testimony against client 
By Peter Vieth
Published: December 7, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Judge C. Peter Tench, Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr., Newport News Circuit Court, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Court of Appeals News
A Virginia Supreme Court panel is considering whether to allow an appeal in a case where a Newport News man was convicted of a shooting based largely on the testimony of his former defense attorney. If interest by a justice at a writ panel hearing is any indication, Mario Turner should get a hearing by [...]



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