The VLW Blog

A woman who occasionally rented out her Blue Ridge Mountain cabin must defend a negligence suit filed by a guest who said he was injured when he fell through a rotted hammock on the rental property. Although the cabin was the defendant Rebecca Ramos’ primary residence, she still qualified as an innkeeper who owed an [...]

[Read more →]

Snow and ice are obvious hazards, right? Maybe not, when it comes to Virginia slip-and-fall law. Then it’s a case of what did a business owner know, and when did he know it. A new case from Abingdon federal court has a twist: When it came to icy parking lots, the plaintiff was a professional. [...]

[Read more →]

A Norfolk Circuit judge isn’t taking any chances on having a personal injury case land back in his lap. Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. had a fairly routine premises liability case before him last month. Plaintiff Daniel Moran was thinking of buying a house owned by Fannie Mae. He got the lock-box combination from the [...]

[Read more →]

A company that screens job applicants is facing a negligence claim for allegedly missing the “extensive” criminal record of a leasing agent hired by a Falls Church apartment complex. The company, Liberty Screening Services Ltd., allegedly did the background check on Mark Lawlor before he was hired as a leasing agent for Prestwick Apartments, a [...]

[Read more →]

The Memorial Day murder of a deputy’s ex-wife has led to a $20-million wrongful death lawsuit against Franklin County Sheriff Ewell Hunt. Former deputy Jonathan Agee, 32, is accused of gunning down his ex-wife Jennifer in Roanoke City and later wounding a state trooper who pursued Agee into Montgomery County. The family of Jennifer Agee [...]

[Read more →]

A Fairfax Circuit Court says the “public duty” doctrine does not extend to firefighters, to protect them from a gross negligence lawsuit filed by the sons of a woman who died in a townhouse fire. The suit filed by the sons of Debra Chiles alleges she died after calling the fire department and reporting that [...]

[Read more →]

A state law that says it is not negligent to fail to restrain a child in a vehicle does not abrogate the common law duty to protect the child, a divided Supreme Court of Virginia holds today. Four-year-old Hannah Leigh Evans was seriously injured in a head-on collision after her father put her in a [...]

[Read more →]

Fairfax Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush reminded those at the Virginia Trial Lawyer Association’s annual convention on Saturday, “The Supreme Court has a lof of faith that, if given the opportunity, the jury will get it right.” The court had re-emphasized the point barely 24 hours in an unpublished order, Thompson v. Home Properties Seminary [...]

[Read more →]

A five-member majority of the Supreme Court of Virginia has attempted to clarify its holding in the controversial case involving the death of a teenage girl during a sleepover visit with a friend. In Kellermann v. McDonough, the court established a general duty for host parents to supervise and care for a child guest entrusted [...]

[Read more →]

Rockbridge County Circuit Judge Michael Irvine has granted a defense motion to strike a wrongful death lawsuit after a jury deadlocked over liability for a teen’s 2006 drowning at a Lexington city park. Charles Volpe, 16, drowned while swimming at a city park when he became trapped underwater below a low head dam on the [...]

[Read more →]