Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Even if a lawyer had been late in withdrawing a client’s guilty plea, he would not have been liable for malpractice, a federal judge in Abingdon has ruled. The client’s admission in open court that he had distributed drugs was ...

The sister of a woman raped and murdered in an Arlington apartment building has reached a $1.3 million settlement with the owners of the apartment complex. Her suit against the complex alleged negligent repair and maintenance, inadequate security and fraud. ...

Even though two developers in a subdivision had their lots collectively advertised in a broker’s brochure, the developers did not act “in concert” to sell their lots in a “common promotional plan,” the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ...

A husband and wife want you to draft wills for both of them. During the initial interview, it becomes apparent that husband and wife may have conflicting interests in how the estate is structured because most of the property is ...

The ingenuity of defense lawyers in finding technical defenses to drunken driving charges apparently is inexhaustible. One of the year’s most popular opinions has been Commonwealth v. Slusher, (VLW 093-8-117), a Spotsylvania County case in which a judge threw out ...

A Loudoun County judge has awarded sole physical custody of a six-year-old girl to a man who is not her biological father. The court found the “special facts and circumstances” of the case dictated giving custody to the man, who ...

The owner of a shopping center has obtained a $750,000 verdict against its insurance company to repair cracking caused by a leaking underground pipe. The defendant had denied coverage based on “earth movement” and “settlement” exclusions in the policy, according ...

A real estate buyer who promised to “obtain suitable financing” to buy a tract of land must proceed with the purchase even though the buyer’s father refused to loan him the money to make the deal, a Louisa County Circuit ...

Even though the defendant made no showing of fraud or other irregularity, a default judgment could be set aside within 21 days of its entry, a Louisa County Circuit judge has ruled. During that time, the matter was still “within ...

A defendant who allegedly stole property from two different people at the same time and place can be charged with only one count of larceny, a Richmond Circuit judge has ruled in a case of apparent first impression. The commonwealth, ...