Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

The Virginia Supreme Court has denied a newspaper’s request to unseal portions of a judge’s mandamus petition that included documents from her then pending matter before the Judicial Inquiry and Review Committee, or JIRC. “The confidentiality accorded to judicial disciplinary ...

Tagged with: Judges Judicial Inquiry and Review Committee Supreme Court of Virginia

A whistleblower’s retaliatory termination suit against her former employer has survived dismissal, but the judge limited her allegations to those presented in her complaint to the Office of the Inspector General, or OIG. The veterinarian plaintiff alleged that her government ...

Tagged with: Judge Thomas T. Cullen U.S. District Court - Western District Whistleblower

A federal court has sanctioned an employee who deleted electronically stored information, or ESI, from his former employer’s computers after receiving a litigation hold letter when he was fired for starting a competing company with several co-workers. Judge Roderick C. ...

Tagged with: Employment Judge Roderick C. Young Spoliation U.S. Bankruptcy Court – Eastern District

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in favor of a defendant insurance company after the company and the plaintiff both submitted motions for summary judgment to determine the applicable limit for underinsured motorist coverage. The ...

Tagged with: Insurance Judge Henry E. Hudson U.S. District Court - Eastern District Underinsured motorist coverage

A lawsuit alleging discrimination and wrongful termination lodged by a former executive of a Southwest Virginia bank against her previous employer was dismissed by a federal judge last month. Senior U.S. District Judge James P. Jones of the U.S. District ...

Tagged with: Employment Law Judge James P. Jones U.S. District Court - Western District wrongful termination

A challenge by the Democratic Party of Virginia, or DVPA, to the state’s requirement that voting registrants disclose their full nine-digit Social Security number has survived a motion to dismiss from the State Board of Elections and the Republican Party ...

Tagged with: Judge Henry E. Hudson U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a claimant’s defamation suit was dismissed with a warning that further frivolous pleadings might justify sanctions, her subsequently filed claims based on new conduct were not frivolous and did not warrant sanctions. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul V. Niemeyer Sanctions

The Supreme Court of Virginia reversed a lower court’s ruling and denied homeowner’s insurance coverage for an all-terrain vehicle, or ATV, after determining the vehicle did not qualify as a “farm type vehicle.” The Pittsylvania County Circuit Court had previously ...

Tagged with: Insurance Justice Stephen R. McCullough Supreme Court of Virginia

A man’s gender-based wrongful termination claim has survived summary judgment because the company CEO’s alleged role in his firing provided direct evidence of discriminatory motive. The plaintiff alleged that during his employer’s investigation of sexual harassment complaints against him, the ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Employment Law Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Two of Virginia’s oldest law firms, Woods Rogers and Vandeventer Black, announced April 21 that they will merge later this year. The new firm — to be known as Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black — will be home to more than ...

Tagged with: Law Firms Merger Vandeventer Black Woods Rogers