Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Where the owner of a patent for a radiation shield provided a distributor with products to use for a demonstration and copyrighted photos to use in its marketing materials and the distributor then altered the photographs to sell its own ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where Bank of the West violated an automatic stay, sought to collect a deficiency balance after the expiration period and willfully made repeated contact with the debtors despite requests from their counsel to stop, the bank was sanctioned and counsel ...

Tagged with: Bankruptcy Judge Paul M. Black U.S. Bankruptcy Court

A defamation verdict against appellant is reversed because three statements submitted to the jury had previously been ruled as nonactionable statements of opinion. Background Handberg retained Goldberg to advocate for his son, who attended Loudon County Public Schools. Goldberg supplemented ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Supreme Court of Virginia

Even though appellant altered her assignments of error after her appeal petition was granted, the appeal will be heard. The original assignments of error were adequately addressed on brief. As to the merits, the circuit court incorrectly delegated its authority ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Justice Cleo E. Powell Supreme Court of Virginia

A loan servicing company was not in privity with the law firm that represented it in a foreclosure action against a property owner. As a result, when the property owner named only the law firm in an unsuccessful petition to ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia

Where a county abandoned a portion of an unbuilt road that had been part of a real estate developer’s plans, the circuit court correctly ruled that the developer had no vested or constitutional right to build the road. The right ...

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

Where plaintiff alleges a classmate sexually attacked her during a school field trip, she has stated a gross negligence claim against defendant school officials. Facts Plaintiff alleges that a classmate, KN, sexually assaulted her on a bus during a school ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Robert J. Smith Personal Injury Virginia Circuit Courts

Where the pleadings in the underlying suit alleged offensive publications were made during the policy period that differed in substance from those published before commencement of coverage, the “prior publication” exclusion did not obviate insurer’s duty to defend. Background In ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Insurance Judge James A. Wynn Jr.

Although the defendant challenged the search warrant that led to his plea to possession of child pornography, there was probable cause for the warrant because the facts in the affidavit supported a reasonable inference that someone using his IP address ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Albert Diaz

Although the government persuaded the district court to impose a sentence above the guidelines range, the plea agreement allowed only the defendant, not the government, to ask for a sentence outside the recommended range. Background Pursuant to a plea agreement, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge James A. Wynn Jr.