The VLW Blog

A doctor who claimed a hospital undermined her career by prodding her practice group to fire her won a $900,000 verdict from a Roanoke jury today, according to the doctor’s attorney. Emergency room doctor Karen Alldredge sued Lewis-Gale Medical Center for alleged tortious interference with contract.  Evidence showed a hospital administrator referred to Alldredge as [...]

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An outspoken emergency room doctor who was fired from her practice group last year has lost a chance for substantial damages from the Salem hospital she claimed subverted her career. Karen Alldredge encouraged nurses who sought better working conditions at Lewis-Gale Medical Center.  Hospital administrators called her an “organizational terrorist” and made their displeasure known [...]

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The folks in charge of notifying convicts of possible DNA evidence related to their cases have added some additional dates for training of lawyers volunteering to help. The updated schedule, which now includes training sessions in McLean and Blacksburg, is here.  2 MCLE credits are available for participation in the training. -Peter Vieth

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Reviewing years of debate over whether various guns can be considered “firearms” when used in felonies, a divided Virginia Court of Appeals panel this week determined that a “John Wayne replica” gun was close enough when it contained all the working parts of the original gun except a firing pin. The decision in Startin v. [...]

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Virginia Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. was hospitalized recently with an infection and will not participate in the court’s argument session next week. Katya N. Herndon, the spokeswoman for the Supreme Court, confirmed the illness and added, “I’m pleased to report that he is feeling much better.” Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, which has [...]

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Here’s what NOT to do during oral argument at the Supreme Court of Virginia, according to Justice LeRoy Millette.  Millette noted lawyers twice referred to the sitting court as “you guys” during one recent session. The over-familiarity was not well received by the justices, Millette disclosed, although one of the offenders managed to prevail on [...]

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Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald W. Lemons has moved his home and chambers to Nellysford. Lemons’ chambers had been in the Supreme Court building in Richmond, and he had lived in Hanover County on a 3-acre tract west of Ashland. His new home is in the Stoney Creek development of Wintergreen, and his chambers are [...]

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The Salem/Roanoke County Bar Association, whose members normally dine on the banquet food at the Salem Civic Center, will aim its culinary standards a bit higher for a fundraiser in November .  Wade Anderson, gourmand, restaurant critic and appellate law clerk, is working with the chef at 202 Market, a Roanoke eatery, to prepare a [...]

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Montgomery County Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs has agreed to move another Morva trial. Michael Morva is accused of helping his brother, William, plan an escape from the Montgomery County jail in an 2006 incident that left both a county deputy and a hospital security guard dead. William Morva was sentenced to death last year in [...]

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Officials from Virginia attended a Maryland session yesterday to test devices designed to find illegal cellphones used by prison inmates. Most of the technology tested doesn’t jam cellphone signals, which is prohibited by federal law. However, legislation that would allow states to conduct wireless cell phone jamming in prisons was recently approved by a Senate [...]

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