When Virginia courthouses fall into disrepair, judges often find themselves in a tense public struggle with local elected officials over what needs to be done and how to pay for it. The process can erupt into bitter legal fights pitting ...

Tagged with: Appomattox County Circuit Court Judge Charles E. Poston Smyth County Circuit Court

A driver charged with involuntary manslaughter who challenges use of a blood test showing a .13 BAC, taken when he was at the hospital for treatment after the fatal auto accident loses his constitutional challenge to Va. Code § 19.2-187.02, ...

Tagged with: Judge Charles E. Poston Norfolk Circuit Court Traffic Offenses Virginia Circuit Courts

Hospital records showing a driver’s BAC at .13 after a two-fatality automobile accident are admissible under Va. Code § 19.2-187.02, a Norfolk Circuit Court says, notwithstanding a Sixth Amendment Melendez-Diaz challenge to the statute, which allows the test as a ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Charles E. Poston Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

Plaintiff alleged the wrongful death of her 69-year-old husband. The plaintiff’s decedent had suffered from Gardner’s Syndrome since 1970, and had a subtotal colectomy at that time. He was followed with annual sigmoidoscopes by a physician until 1991 when that ...

Tagged with: Halifax County Circuit Court Judge Charles E. Poston Medical Malpractice Million-Dollar Defense Verdicts

A defendant convicted of rape, forcible sodomy and attempted sodomy, who has sought but not received treatment during his incarceration and who can be released to the custody of his mother who lives in rural Illinois, may pursue conditional release ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Charles E. Poston Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

A landowner who hired an independent contractor to dig under a highway right-of-way, with VDOT permission, to connect a waterline to a business, cannot be sued for negligence in the death of a sub’s construction worker, who was killed when ...

Tagged with: Judge Charles E. Poston Negligence Roanoke County Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

A Norfolk Circuit Court dismisses plaintiff’s suit alleging loan and renovations fraud, as plaintiff has failed to allege the requisite elements of a claim for fraud. This matter is before the court on demurrer of defendants Cornerstone Investment Funding (CIF) ...

Tagged with: Judge Charles E. Poston Norfolk Circuit Court Real Estate Virginia Circuit Courts

A Norfolk Circuit Court sustains defendant school’s demurrer to a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress alleging damages from defendant school’s employment of an assistant girls’ basketball coach who allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with an underage student, ...

Tagged with: Judge Charles E. Poston Norfolk Circuit Court Tort Virginia Circuit Courts

A plaintiff who trespassed onto a construction site the possessor had taken measures to secure, through continuous efforts to seal a gap in the fence that was a known point of entry, cannot sue for damages from injuries when he ...

Tagged with: Judge Charles E. Poston Negligence Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

A Norfolk Circuit Court sua sponte vacates its order, entered one day earlier, prohibiting defendants “May4thCounts.com” and a “Disgruntled Citizen” from using the website, and ordering its removal from the Internet. According to the complaint, the website publishes “certain information ...

Tagged with: Judge Charles E. Poston Norfolk Circuit Court Tort Virginia Circuit Courts