The VLW Blog

Here’s a word of caution for lawyers who use Twitter professionally: If you part ways with your firm, your ex-employer may get custody of your Tweets.
In the past few years, legal disputes over social media have become increasingly common. Defamation claims and discovery matters are standard issues. But employment-related social media issues are now starting [...]

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A group of bondholders who got stiffed when a major German conference center project went bust have won a $96.4-million Alexandria federal jury verdict against a South Korean national who allegedly lied about backing for the bonds.
The jury found former McLean businessman Man Ki Kim committed fraud when he promised to provide money for a [...]

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Tysons Corner lawyer Brian F. Kenney has been named to a pending opening on the federal bankruptcy bench in Alexandria.
He will succeed U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen S. Mitchell, who was named to the court in 1994 and who will retire Aug. 31. Kenney, who was appointed by the judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit [...]

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A former account manager and bookkeeper at a Virginia Beach law firm pleaded guilty today in federal court in Norfolk to forging firm checks totaling $567,075.
Diana L. Farmer-Forston, 54, of Virginia Beach, forged the signature of a principal of Bennett and Zydron PC on 210 checks between July 2007 and February 2011, according to the [...]

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The U.S. Sentencing Commission has given retroactive effect to its proposed permanent amendment to the federal sentencing guidelines for crimes involving crack cocaine. The action could make 12,000 federal offenders eligible to seek a reduction in their prison sentence.
A dispropotionate number of those offenders were convicted and sentenced in the Richmond Division of the Eastern [...]

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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 grand [...]

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An Alexandria federal judge ruled yesterday that the ban on direct political contributions by corporations to federal candidates is unconstitutional.
Senior Judge James C. Cacheris said the logic in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year in Citizens United v. FEC compelled that holding. His ruling came in the context of criminal charges filed against two [...]

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An offer of judgment is different from a settlement, and a federal magistrate judge has awarded attorneys’ fees against a defendant who failed to appreciate the distinction.
Once an offer of judgment is accepted, a plaintiff is free to file notice of the agreement with the federal clerk’s office which “must” enter it, Magistrate Judge Dennis [...]

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A federal jury in Richmond has awarded $212 million, including $200 million in punitive damages, to a Fredericksburg-area man who suffered severe medical complications from the drug Botox.
Douglas Ray Jr. received an injection of the drug to treat a hand tremor and writer’s cramp. He alleged that complications from that injection resulted in total disability [...]

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Federal courts would keep running more or less as normal for up to two weeks if the government shuts down tonight, according to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.
Non-appropriated fees would last for that period of time, but the courts would face “serious disruption” if a shutdown lasts longer, with individual courts following their own [...]

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