The VLW Blog

Foot bone connected to the leg bone. Leg bone connected to the knee bone. You could almost hear the Court of Appeals humming “dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones” when they decided a workers’ comp case yesterday. Under Virginia workers’ comp jurisprudence, the hip bone is not connected to the back bone, and the [...]

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Yesterday was primary day across Virginia, with turnout at pitifully low levels. Among the results: McEachin beats Lambert. Longtime Democratic Sen. Bennie Lambert of Richmond endorsed former U.S. Sen. George Allen last fall, and he paid for it last night. Trial lawyer Donald McEachin, the Dems’ 2001 nominee for Attorney General, gave up his House [...]

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Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy, the longest serving member of the Supreme Court of Virginia, has told her colleagues that she will retire in August. Lacy made the announcement Friday at the end of the court’s June argument week. She said she intends to continue to serve as a senior justice, participating on three-justice panels that [...]

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The following selected stories appeared in the Virginia Lawyers Weekly Daily E-Mail Alert from June 5 to June 8. The originating source of a story is indicated after the item. Please note that not all links may remain active. If you are not presently receiving the Daily Alert, please click here to sign up.June 5 [...]

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Personal injury defendants enjoy the protection of certain caps on damages in Virginia. At times, defendants have been able to invoke that protection sooner, rather than later, by getting trial courts to reduce ad damnum clauses to cap levels before a case ever goes to the jury. But the Supreme Court of Virginia today rejected [...]

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It was a bad day for the commonwealth in the Supreme Court of Virginia. The high court reversed seven lower court rulings in favor of the state, including four criminal cases, a sexually violent predator designation, an analysis of the “good cause” requirement for a change of name by a prison inmate, and an interpretation [...]

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There is a legal story that’s been floating around the Internet that is worth pulling to ground and blogging about. Last month a lawyer from a big firm in Chicago was handling a case in federal bankruptcy court in Miami. Lawyer is head of the bankruptcy section of said big firm. The judge holds an [...]

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By accepting a $2,000 check from the defendant to cover medical bills, the plaintiff is not entitled to the $800,000 he later sought in a personal injury lawsuit. A Rockingham County Circuit Court jury returned a defense verdict in the case of Shifflett v. Shifflett, based on accord and satisfaction. The suit stemmed from injuries [...]

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A Gloucester General District judge ruled today that use of an affidavit to establish that a sex offender did not register as required by state law violates the Confrontation Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Under Virginia Code § 18.2-472.1(D), a Virginia State Police affidavit of the defendant’s history of registration as a sex offender is [...]

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Join me for a drive from Bristol to Abingdon down in Southwest Virginia. We’ll avoid Interstate 81 and choose old Lee Highway instead. Past the building that a guy made into a church by putting a steeple on an old auto-parts store. Past the mom-and-pop motels from the 1950s. Past the Wal-Mart and other big [...]

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