Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

A newly elected commonwealth’s attorney who allegedly maligned a former staffer at a public gathering does not have prosecutorial immunity to the staffer’s defamation claim, the Supreme Court of Virginia decided this month. The justices’ ruling revives a lawsuit against ...

Tagged with: Defamation Justice William C. Mims Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia

Virginia began reopening nonessential businesses in most parts of the state May 15, with Richmond, Northern Virginia and Accomack County excluded for at least two weeks. Though employers are preparing to rehire fired or furloughed workers, the nearly 400,000 Virginians ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus Employment Gov. Ralph Northam

Many businesses that shuttered because of the COVID-19 pandemic expected their business interruption insurance would provide some financial relief. But lawyers and insurance experts say it will be an uphill battle to obtain benefits without showing unusual circumstances. At least ...

Tagged with: Business Coronavirus Insurance

Courts across Virginia are again opening their doors for in-person hearings and trials. But officials say it will be anything but “business as usual” as courtrooms return to open proceedings. While the Supreme Court of Virginia has distributed a 16-page ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus

Judge Gilbert Berger decided Culpeper residents shouldn’t have to wait to be given their driver’s licenses while the rest of the world is on hold. “We were shut down, so to speak, by the first orders of the Supreme Court, ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus Judge Gilbert Berger

With many thousands of Virginians working out of the office, employers may face a question they’ve never previously considered: Can employees file workers’ compensation claims if they are injured while working from home? In short, the answer is yes – though ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus Workers' Compensation

The coronavirus has caused a ripple through personal injury practice. A hold on elective surgeries led to a loss of patients for the medical community. Thousands, if not millions, of Virginians are out of their offices. The stay-at-home order has ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus Personal Injury

Despite a “suspicious” omission of unfavorable medical information, a Norfolk judge refused to hobble a medical malpractice case because the plaintiff and his lawyer dragged their feet in supplementing discovery responses. The defendant hospital claimed there was a “blatant abuse ...

Tagged with: Judge Mary Jane Hall Medical Malpractice Norfolk Circuit Court Sanctions Virginia Circuit Courts

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a governor’s order may limit, but not eliminate, virus liability exposure for some health care providers. Responding to a bid for broader and more specific liability protection for medical professionals in the pandemic emergency, Gov. Ralph ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus Gov. Ralph Northam Medical Malpractice

Just a day after statewide bar groups asked for action to move civil cases along during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court of Virginia responded with a new judicial emergency order May 6. The order drops any tolling of discovery ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Coronavirus Supreme Court of Virginia