The VLW Blog

When it comes to pleading adultery, a lawyer can’t use a claim of smoke to ferret out a fire.
In a Keeler v. Keeler, a new divorce case from Fairfax, the wife suspected adultery. In her divorce complaint, her lawyer cited the husband’s alleged use of Craigslist to solicit sexual partners and a computer forensic report [...]

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A group of 40 Gloucester County residents, eager to test an award of sanctions for seeking the ouster of local officials, finally has a case on the docket at the Supreme Court of Virginia.
As reported by the Daily Press , the citizens filed their petition for appeal Wednesday at the high court.
The citizens had petitioned [...]

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Shenandoah County Circuit Judge Dennis Hupp said the county board of supervisors waited too long to ask for sanctions against a former board candidate.
In a letter opinion and accompanying order last month, Hupp closed the case, declining to rule on the county’s sanctions motion against Mark Prince and his lawyer.  He held the county knew [...]

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In an update to a story in this week’s VLW, Shenandoah County Circuit Judge Dennis Hupp will not allow his jurisdiction to lapse before considering a sanctions motion against a political candidate and his lawyer.
Judge Hupp entered an order last week suspending the Sept. 29 “final order” that dismissed the underlying case.  The order states [...]

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U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema decided today not to sanction SPH America LLC, a Reston-based company that attempts to enforce patents on mobile phone technology, even though she said the suit it filed against the national law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP was groundless.
SPH accused the law firm of disclosing confidential information that it [...]

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Remember when real estate was a different kind of story?
Bidding wars. Tear-downs. Money all around.
Spring 2007. A woman who wants to sell her mother’s home talks to a real estate agent, who suggests a target price of $729,000 for the Fairfax property.
With a “pocket buyer” already in hand, the agent expects to pocket the [...]

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Taboada v. Daily Seven, the premises liability case that greatly expanded the potential liability of hotel operators, has been settled. The case is perhaps better known for the intemperate petition for a rehearing filed by a Roanoke attorney that earned him a contempt citation and a fine from the Virginia Supreme Court.
The Roanoke Times has [...]

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Defense lawyers are accustomed to the aggravation of a nonsuit. They know what it’s like when plaintiffs apply the brakes on the eve of a scheduled trial.
The shoe was on the other foot in a case handed down today by the Supreme Court of Virginia. In McNally v. Rey, defense attorney John McNally’s corporate client [...]

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Once again, when trial judges and lawyers convene, the talk turns to Benitez, the Virginia Supreme Court sanctions case. The venue this time? A panel of circuit court judges at the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association annual meeting on March 28, moderated by Arlington Circuit Court Judge Joanne Alper.
The subject is irresistibly personal.
“Sanctions motions are different [...]

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Handed down a year ago, the decision in Ford Motor Co. v. Benitez was one of the top legal news stories in 2007. In Benitez, the Supreme Court of Virginia upheld a $2,000 sanction against a defense attorney who, after discovery and a nonsuit in a products liability case, continued to press affirmative defenses with [...]

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