Even without binding authority in the circuit on the circumstances, a federal appeals panel has denied qualified immunity for a police officer who shot and killed a citizen’s dog when the dog allegedly posed no threat. “Police can’t kill pets ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Civil Rights

By David Donovan BridgeTower Media Newswires Grave robbing has been a tempting crime for millennia—the victim is in no shape to defend himself, and he would seem to have no further use for worldly possessions. Egyptian pyramids were specifically engineered ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Identity Theft

Although the 4th Circuit has not yet spoken on “constructive demotion” as a factor in a Title VII retaliation claim, a federal district judge in Roanoke has embraced the concept and allowed such a claim to go forward. U.S. District ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Judge Glen E. Conrad Title VII

By Heather Cobun BridgeTower Media Newswires A federal appeals court ordered that the review of materials seized from a Baltimore law firm in June be reassigned from prosecutors to a magistrate judge Thursday. A spokeswoman for the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News

A divided federal appeals panel has overturned the convictions of three accused drug distributors because a jury never was asked if the charges were brought in the right locality. A two-judge majority of a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Criminal Judge Irene C. Berger Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III Judge Robert B. King

Even though he appealed his termination from a state grievance process, a fired Virginia State Police special agent did not lose his right to sue in federal court for discrimination under federal law, a federal appeals court has ruled. The ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Employment Judge William B. Traxler Jr.

A federal appeals court has underscored its insistence that attorneys’ fee awards take into account just how far short of target a plaintiff’s arrow falls. Judges must compare the amount of damages sought to the amount awarded, the 4th Circuit ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Attorneys Fees FLSA

By Bill Cresenzo BridgeTower Media Newswires An insurance company that denied benefits to a disabled plant manager in the face of overwhelming evidence of his total disability has been rebuked sharply by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Insurance Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III

A woman’s failure to read the label on a bottle of pills was not contributory negligence as a matter of law, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in the case of a pharmacy that mailed the wrong medicine ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. Negligence

BY CORREY E. STEPHENSON BridgeTower Media Newswires Overruling 22 years of precedent, the en banc 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Chapter 13 debtors may divide some undersecured home mortgage loans into secured and unsecured claims and ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Bankruptcy Real Estate