The VLW Blog

A contract calling for payment of “legal costs” did not authorize a trial court to award attorney’s fees, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held. On Feb. 19, the appeals court vacated an award of $547,518 that included attorney’s fees in a dispute over a coal contract. Abingdon U.S. District Judge James P. [...]

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A federal appeals court has reversed dismissal of a medical malpractice suit filed by a man who claimed he was harmed when he participated in a cocaine research study sponsored by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Charlottesville U.S. District Judge Glen E. Conrad dismissed Michael James Keitz’s suit because he failed to certify that an expert [...]

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Bedford County authorities have charged a backseat passenger with driving under the influence based on evidence she grabbed the vehicle’s steering wheel and caused a wreck. The unusual charge stems from a single-car accident in January where several people were injured, one seriously, according to The Roanoke Times. Other passengers told police Brandi Snow Williams [...]

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The General Assembly elected R. Ferrell Newman to the state Workers’ Compensation Commission Wednesday. Newman, who has practiced workers’ compensation law in Richmond for 30 years, fills the seat designated for a “neutral” on the three-member commission. Newman said his practice has been primarily in representation of employers and their insurers, but he has occasionally [...]

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While news reports note plummeting law school applications, one legal scholar sees salvation for legal education in the third-year practicum embraced by Washington & Lee’s law school. The enthusiastic review comes from William Henderson, law professor at Indiana University law school. In a recent essay, he cited data from a Law School Survey of Student [...]

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The widow of a former Navy sailor who died of mesothelioma may collect on a judgment she won in 2010, including a $2 million award for the sailor’s pain and suffering prior to his death. On Feb. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorari in John Crane Inc. v. Hardick, a case [...]

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A Roanoke woman has won a $28,000 jury verdict against her former lawyer for his alleged sexual overtures in a jailhouse visit videotaped by police. A Roanoke County jury returned the verdict Feb. 15 against Robert B. Armstrong of Lexington, lawyers in the case reported. It’s the third penalty for Armstrong arising from the incident. [...]

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Without a single “nay” vote at any step, the Virginia General Assembly has approved a law to require insurance companies to notify personal injury claimants when they send settlement checks to claimants’ lawyers. Senate Bill 984, sponsored by Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, sailed through the Assembly without a hitch, winning final House approval on [...]

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A court-ordered breakup of a family-owned central Virginia mining corporation will stand. The Supreme Court of Virginia on Friday refused to review the decision of Circuit Judge Jane M. Roush calling for a sell-off of assets of The Disthene Group Inc., including a lucrative mineral operation in Buckingham County and the historic Cavalier Hotel in [...]

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The Roanoke Bar Association has endorsed Roanoke school board chairman David B. Carson for one of two Roanoke Valley circuit court judgeships to be vacated this year. Carson is a defense litigator with Johnson Ayers & Matthews. He is a member of the Boyd-Graves Conference and a former member of the Ted Dalton Inn of [...]

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