The VLW Blog

An actor who made his reputation playing a slightly sleazy TV lawyer can tell a jury he did not violate a morality clause in his contract to be a celebrity spokesperson for a legal marketing campaign. Virginia Beach-based Innovative Legal Marketing LLC hired Corbin Bernsen to promote its “BIG CASE” TV advertising campaign. Bernsen gained [...]

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Debra Farmer didn’t take the broad hint offered by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema during a final pretrial conference in Farmer’s Title VII suit against Navy Federal Credit Union, Farmer’s former employer. Brinkema recounted the state of the record and said she did not see how Farmer could survive summary judgment. Farmer forged ahead, and [...]

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An employer did not defame a nurse supervisor when it noted in her employment records that she had been terminated for misconduct related to her reports that she had been cursed at by someone she supervised on a healthcare call-in line. The nurse supervisor, Shirley Shaheen, appealed dismissal of her defamation claim to the 4th [...]

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An employee contract clause calling for a $100,000 annual benefit for a surviving spouse is ambiguous, prompting the 4th Circuit to vacate judgment against the employee’s widow and send the case back for another look. When Hampton Roads music promoter David Williams went to work for Cellar Door Management, or CDP Inc., in 1994, he [...]

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An age-discrimination case based on a demand for “21st Century skills” is set for trial in Richmond federal court this month. The case turns on what a school superintendent meant when he justified replacing the school system’s 60-year-old chief public information officer with her younger male assistant. The superintendent said he wanted “21st Century communication [...]

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A real estate agency is not vicariously liable for a $36 million judgment entered against its affiliated broker whose car struck a German couple riding a motorcycle in Fauquier County in 2005. Although broker Charles Ebbets was on his way from a property inspection to the Long & Foster real estate office, he was not [...]

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In this pink-slip nervous economy, employees may wonder anew how much notice they can expect before being escorted out the door. Not much, according to a new decision from Alexandria federal court. Hourly employee Mauricio Calquin sued his former employer, Doodycalls Fairfax, for violating overtime pay laws. Calquin also tacked on a state-law claim for [...]

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A doctor who claimed a hospital undermined her career by prodding her practice group to fire her won a $900,000 verdict from a Roanoke jury today, according to the doctor’s attorney. Emergency room doctor Karen Alldredge sued Lewis-Gale Medical Center for alleged tortious interference with contract.  Evidence showed a hospital administrator referred to Alldredge as [...]

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An outspoken emergency room doctor who was fired from her practice group last year has lost a chance for substantial damages from the Salem hospital she claimed subverted her career. Karen Alldredge encouraged nurses who sought better working conditions at Lewis-Gale Medical Center.  Hospital administrators called her an “organizational terrorist” and made their displeasure known [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled today that ab order to compel arbitration can’t be appealed under the Virginia Uniform Arbitration Act. The issue arose when Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. filed a motion to compel arbitration after an employee filed a state court claim that she had been defamed in a performance evaluation. Northrop Grumman [...]

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