An insured roofing contractor who settled a suit for defective work for $1 million is a nominal party in a contribution suit between the contractor’s insurance carriers, and applying the nominal party exception to the rule requiring unanimous consent to ...

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

The 4th Circuit reverses defendant’s child pornography conviction because police did not give the 19-year-old community college student his Miranda rights until two hours into a three-hour custodial interrogation in the basement of his home, which had been entered by ...

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

The 4th Circuit rejects plaintiff prisoner’s constitutional challenge to a provision of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that caps recovery of attorney’s fees for an inmate’s successful civil rights claims, and upholds a district court’s award of $1.40 ...

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

A divided 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has given new life to a once-floundering class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination by the Family Dollar discount chain. The ruling allows the plaintiffs in Scott v. Family Dollar Stores (VLW 013-2-185) to ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Federal Courts Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III

In sentencing defendant on a conviction for illegal reentry into the U.S., a district court did not err in treating a prior conviction for resisting arrest as a “crime of violence” under federal sentencing guidelines; adopting the categorical approach to ...

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

The 4th Circuit affirms bank fraud conspiracy and identity theft convictions and a 96-month sentence for a defendant who used local college students to deposit stolen credit card convenience checks and withdraw the funds before the bank could discover the ...

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

A defendant convicted of drug and firearms offenses based on evidence discovered during a traffic stop is not entitled to post-conviction relief on his claim that his lawyer was constitutionally ineffective in failing to challenge the constitutionality of the search ...

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

In this dispute over a ski towns association’s use of software to track vacation rentals of private homes to ensure tax compliance, a Virginia federal court did not err in staying suit filed in that court by the software licensor ...

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

In this case involving a cutback in Medicaid services to a class of North Carolina recipients with severe developmental disabilities, the 4th Circuit dismisses an appeal of a preliminary injunction ordering the state Medicaid agency not to reduce services without ...

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

Despite a statutory mandate requiring federal agencies to respond to FOIA requests and appeals within 20 working days, defendant Drug Enforcement Administration ultimately took two and one-half years to respond to plaintiff’s request for documents concerning the federal government’s regulation ...

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