Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

A purchasing agent for a power company who claims that secondhand smoke in his workplace is a major contributor to his bronchial asthma has filed suit in federal court against his employer under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The plaintiff ...

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Virginia Supreme Court Justice Leroy R. Hassell has gained the endorsements of all six of Virginia’s statewide bar associations for a spot on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The endorsements came in response to a ...

A man paralyzed in a bicycle accident has obtained a $1,650,000 settlement from the bike manufacturer and the store that advertised the bike as an all terrain bike. The case is Abel v. Montgomery Ward and Asahi Enterprises Corp. (see ...

Gov. L. Douglas Wilder’s deadline for signing bills from this year’s General Assembly has come and gone and Family Courts still await final authorization. Wilder returned enabling bills for the new courts with amendments that will be taken up when ...

The U.S. government’s Office of Personnel Management has published a handbook that no divorce lawyer who represents federal employees, or their spouses, should be without, according to domestic relations expert Joseph A. Condo of Fairfax. The book is a compilation ...

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Even though a bank extended credit to her ex-husband after their divorce, a wife cannot use the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to void a guarantee agreement she signed during the marriage, a Loudoun County circuit judge has ...

Even though a plaintiff had interviewed an attorney about representing it in possible litigation, the plaintiff could not have the attorney’s firm disqualified from representing the defendant in the same litigation, a Fairfax circuit judge has ruled. In a matter ...

Guarantors on a loan to a Chapter 11 debtor could temporarily halt foreclosure on their home even though they had not filed their own bankruptcy petition, a Norfolk bankruptcy judge has ruled. The bankruptcy court said that “unusual circumstances” in ...

The Virginia Court of Appeals has drawn another boundary defining reasonable suspicion for police stops based on anonymous tips. A 2-1 majority affirmed a conviction for driving after an habitual offender adjudication, based on from a tip-inspired stop and arrest. ...

The Judicial Council has approved standards of ethical and professional conduct for court-certified mediators. The standards will become effective on July 1, concurrent with the new alternative dispute resolution statute. As of July 1, judges will have the power to ...