Supreme Court welcomes new chief staff attorney 
By Peter Vieth
Published: February 25, 2013
Tags: Supreme Court of Virginia News
In a changing of the guard at the main gate to the Supreme Court of Virginia, longtime chief staff attorney Gregory E. Lucyk is retiring, to be succeeded by a leader in the field of local government law. The court selected Jacob P. “Jay” Stroman IV to head the office that reviews all the petitions [...]
Woman hurt in grocery wins $5M
By Peter Vieth
Published: February 6, 2013
Tags: Gloucester County Circuit Court, Judge Walter J. Ford, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Personal Injury, Premises Liability, Supreme Court of Virginia News
A disabled Gloucester County woman has won a record-tying $5 million verdict for a fall in a supermarket. But her path to that victory wasn’t easy – she was shut out by the first jury she faced and needed a trip to the Supreme Court of Virginia to gain a second trial of her claim. [...]
Judge rejects use of comparisons
By Peter Vieth
Published: January 30, 2013
Tags: Judge Charles N. Dorsey, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Personal Injury, Roanoke Circuit Court, Supreme Court of Virginia News
A disabled Henry County woman keeps a $1.85 million award – reduced from a jury verdict of $6.5 million – as a Roanoke City circuit judge rejected defense claims that the sum awarded did not line up with past awards for similar injuries. The judge was quick to cite a brand new decision of the [...]
District court could amend DWI charge
By Peter Vieth
Published: January 17, 2013
Tags: Hernandez, Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Traffic Offenses
The Supreme Court of Virginia has refused — again — to tie the hands of trial court judges who want to control disposition of criminal charges in some cases. The latest pronouncement in a string of decisions since the touchstone Hernandez case reinforces the idea that general district judges may modify criminal charges as they [...]
Failure-to-warn rule tightened in van case
By Peter Vieth
Published: January 17, 2013
Tags: Justice Cleo E. Powell, Justice Donald W. Lemons, Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr., Justice William C. Mims, Products Liability, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, Wrongful Death
A change of heart by a single justice has brought an end to a short-lived “relaxed” standard for failure-to-warn claims under Virginia products liability law. After rehearing a products liability case, Virginia Supreme Court Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. switched his position on the standard for use of similar incidents in product failure cases, dashing [...]
‘One-minute phone call’ subject of ethics appeal
By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 11, 2013
Tags: Justice Donald W. Lemons, Justice William C. Mims, Lawyer Discipline, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia State Bar
Imagine walking around in another person’s skin, in order to understand him. Atticus Finch gave that advice to his daughter Scout, and it may have been on the minds of Virginia’s Supreme Court justices when they heard a trio of lawyer discipline cases last week. When a Virginia State Bar complaint comes before the court, [...]
High court sets new rule on ‘speaking objections’
By Peter Vieth
Published: January 10, 2013
Tags: Rules of Court, Supreme Court of Virginia News
With a “minimalist approach” to curbing witness coaching in depositions, the Supreme Court of Virginia has won favorable reviews from lawyers for new language targeting so-called “speaking objections.” The rule – now in place – for the first time addresses lawyers’ objections that either suggest an answer or offer an argument in the middle of [...]
‘Donor’ father can assert parental rights
By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 10, 2013
Tags: Domestic Relations, Justice William C. Mims, Supreme Court of Virginia News
A man who fathered a child with his girlfriend through in vitro fertilization can seek visitation denied by the mother, the Supreme Court of Virginia said on Jan. 10. Although a Virginia statute declares that a sperm “donor” can only count as the father of a child born through assisted conception if he is married [...]
High court reinstates full verdict in ‘Lester’
By Peter Vieth
Published: January 10, 2013
Tags: Charlottesville Circuit Court, Judge Edward Hogshire, Justice Cleo E. Powell, Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Wrongful Death
The Supreme Court of Virginia has reinstated the full jury verdict of $6,227,000 on Isaiah Lester’s wrongful death claim based on the loss of his wife in a car accident in 2007. The court’s ruling closes the book on a high-profile, high-dollar personal-injury case in Albemarle County. The trial judge had reduced the jury’s award [...]
Justices uphold Fairfax man’s death sentence
By The Associated Press
Published: January 10, 2013
Tags: Supreme Court of Virginia News
(AP) — The Supreme Court of Virginia has upheld a Fairfax County death row inmate’s convictions and sentence. The justices on Thursday unanimously rejected several claims raised by Mark E. Lawlor. He was sentenced to death for the 2008 sexual assault and murder of a woman in the apartment complex where he worked as a leasing [...]
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