Lawyers adjust to changed standard for pleading cases

Judge: ‘Twiqbal’ doesn’t apply to affirmative defenses

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 2, 2010
Tags: Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, Judge Samuel G. Wilson, Twiqbal

Breaking with other Virginia federal judges, Roanoke U.S. District Judge Samuel G. Wilson has ruled the stricter “plausibility” standard used to judge civil complaints does not apply to affirmative defenses. The heightened civil pleading standard derives from two U.S. Supreme Court cases, Twombly and Iqbal. Plaintiffs who want to survive a motion to dismiss must [...]

Pretrial motions practice, more or less?

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 29, 2010
Tags: Federal Courts, Judge Catherine Hammond, Judge Robert E. Payne, Twiqbal

Metropolitan Richmond area judges came up with a wish list for motions practice at the area bar associations’ annual bench-bar conference in Richmond on Oct. 21. Chesterfield General District Court Judge Pamela O’Berry sounded a little wistful when she said her court would like to see a few more well-crafted motions. The GDC judges occasionally [...]

‘Twiqbal’ guide cuts both ways

By Alan Cooper
Published: August 6, 2010
Tags: Federal Courts, Twiqbal, U.S. Supreme Court

If plaintiff’s attorneys have to be more specific in their federal complaints, defense attorneys have a duty to be just as precise in their answers. Virginia federal courts are starting to weigh in on an issue that is splitting the federal courts: whether the more stringent pleading standards recognized in the shorthand “Twombly-Iqbal” formulation can [...]