The VLW Blog

A Virginia Beach lawyer has been indicted on federal charges related to the alleged theft of life insurance proceeds that were intended to benefit the minor children of a man who died in 2006. Brian Gay, 52, was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Norfolk today, when the indictment was made public. The [...]

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Winchester lawyer Paul H. Thomson, a former commonwealth’s attorney, pleaded guilty Monday to five criminal charges, most involving efforts to hide his relationship with a man who supplied him with cocaine. Thomson, 56, signed a plea deal Sunday that calls for three years in prison and a $5,000 restitution payment, apparently a client’s fee refund. [...]

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Jim Fisher has been appointed Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney by the judges of the 20th Judicial Circuit, effective July 1. Fisher, currently the chief deputy attorney in Loudoun County, will serve the balance of a term that ends Dec. 31. He has filed papers to be on the ballot this November for a full four-year [...]

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D.C. Superior Court Judge Ann O’Regan Keary saw a familar face in the jury pool during voir dire on Wednesday: Her husband Tom. She knew Tom was on jury dury and they had joked it would be funny if he ended up in her courtroom. On his questionairre, Tom circled “yes” when asked if he [...]

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A Fairfax circuit jury has awarded $22,000 to a cabbie struck from behind on the Washington Beltway last year. In the case, the plaintiff made allegations that the defendant was drunk, was speeding at 85 mph and was having sex at the time of the crash. The Washington Post tagged it the “Beltway Sex” case [...]

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The “Beltway Sex” case got under way yesterday in Fairfax Circuit Court. The allegations: The plaintiff in the case says the defendant was drunk, going 85 miles an hour on the Beltway and having sex at the time of the crash. With such sensational allegations, it’s no surprise there is a circus-like atmosphere to the [...]

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Employees who think they’re eligible for overtime pay now can keep their timesheets on a new smart phone application developed by the U.S. Department of Labor. The Fair Labor Standards Act calls for overtime pay for certain classes of employees who work in excess of 40 hours per week. But employment lawyers talking to prospective [...]

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Judges, including Chief Justice Cynthia Kinser, substituted for celebrities on Friday in the version of Hollywood Squares that the Young Lawyers Conference of the Virginia State Bar dubbed Judiciary Squares. The judges were given evidence-related questions and contestants – and the audience – had to decide whether the judge had given the correct answer. The [...]

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An employer must reimburse a claimant for mileage under a workers’ compensation award even though the claimant has no fixed residential address, the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission has ruled. In a split decision released yesterday in Vann v. Martin Brower Center, the commission upheld a deputy commissioner’s award of $484.16 to a claimant injured in [...]

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Virginia State Bar President Irving M. Blank told the agency’s executive committee today that he expects statewide bar groups and the Supreme Court of Virginia to revisit the issue of payee notification soon. The concept, which has insurers notify the clients of personal injury lawyers when they send the lawyers settlement checks, “is still alive, [...]

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