Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

A prison inmate diagnosed with gender dysphoria and who is transitioning from male to female identity is entitled to on-the-merits consideration of an application to change her name. The circuit court’s determination that there was not “good cause” to consider ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia

Even though words alone are insufficient provocation to reduce murder to manslaughter, defendant cannot challenge her voluntary manslaughter conviction on this basis because she approved jury instructions that omitted this legal principle, says the Virginia Supreme Court. Defendant waived her ...

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

The circuit court’s ruling that a prison inmate’s future suits would be reviewed and subject to summary dismissal before being served is reversed because the court did not complete the analysis required by Adkins v. CP/IPERS Arlington Hotel LLC, 293 ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy Supreme Court of Virginia

Even though a dog in appellant’s custody may have begun to attack a neighbor’s dog while on appellant’s property, the circuit court correctly ruled that the dangerous dog statute’s safe harbor provision does not apply. There was sufficient evidence to ...

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

The court dismissed most of the objections to an ex-husband’s bankruptcy plan that were made by his former spouse, although it did hold the current, higher value of real property should be used, rather than the assessment that was made ...

Tagged with: Bankruptcy Judge Klinette H. Kindred U.S. Bankruptcy Court U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A man convicted of felony abduction in 2012 won vacation of a removal order based on the court’s finding that he was admitted to the United States in 2002, and the felony removal statute requires the crime be committed within ...

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

Although the district court was imprecise in whether it was imposing an upward departure or a variance in sentencing a former postmaster for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the appellate court found any error was harmless because the sentence was ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Per Curiam Opinion

Because a prior North Carolina conviction for robbery qualified as a “crime of violence” under the Sentencing Guidelines, applying a career offender enhancement to a bank robber’s base offense level was not error. Background Jarrett Terrell Edwards appeals his 192-month ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Per Curiam Opinion

The district court properly dismissed a suit brought by nursing homes on behalf of individual residents challenging Medicaid decisions made by Maryland state agencies because the relief they sought was barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Background Several nursing homes, on ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Administrative Judge G. Steven Agee

The dismissal of a parole officer’s discrimination claims was upheld, because they were filed under the Rehabilitation Act, which is governed by the two-year statute of limitations in the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act rather than Maryland’s three-year statute of ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Employment Discrimination Judge John A. Gibney Jr.