A Botetourt County jury entered a verdict ordering the Virginia Department of Transportation to pay $3.13 million to a couple whose land was condemned for highway purposes. VDOT took seven acres of Bland and Betty Painter’s 29-acre property at Exit ...

Tagged with: Botetourt County Circuit Court Compensation Judge Jonathan M. Apgar Million-Dollar Verdicts

ROANOKE – Going light on preparation can doom your client’s mediation session, one retired judge says. Failure to properly prepare the client was number one on Judge Jonathan Apgar’s list of reasons that mediations don’t work out. The retired judge, ...

Tagged with: ADR Judge Jonathan M. Apgar

Lawyers and legislators from various Virginia locales, including populous Fairfax County, say Gov. Bob McDonnell missed the mark when he proposed money to fill certain judgeships. The governor overlooked areas badly in need of judicial help, in part because the ...

Tagged with: Bar Associations Fairfax County Circuit Court General Assembly Gov. Bob McDonnell Judge Dennis J. Smith Judge Jonathan M. Apgar Judge Robert P. Doherty Jr. Roanoke Circuit Court

On June 13, 2008, Kirk Davis was working as a Remote Control Operator (RCO) in the Roanoke Material Yard when he tripped on a railroad tie, severely twisting his right ankle. His accident was not witnessed. The tie on which ...

Tagged with: Judge Jonathan M. Apgar Million-Dollar Verdicts Personal Injury Roanoke Circuit Court

A Roanoke jury awarded $4.5 million this month to a 43-year-old former railroad worker who claimed his on-the-job foot injury led to permanent pain and disability. The Feb. 17 verdict came at the end of a five-day trial in Kirk ...

Tagged with: Judge Jonathan M. Apgar Million-Dollar Verdicts Personal Injury Roanoke Circuit Court

A contract anesthesiologist can sue a hospital and its house trauma surgeon for defamation for telling the anesthesiologist, “you just euthanized my patient,” and communicating that statement to other hospital staff; but the other comments made by the surgeon were ...

Tagged with: Judge Jonathan M. Apgar Roanoke Circuit Court Tort Virginia Circuit Courts

Accusations of bad medical practice spilled from the operating room to the courtroom in a Roanoke case now headed for trial. A doctor who claims he was accused of “euthanizing” a patient gets to try his $2.35-million defamation case against ...

Tagged with: Defamation Judge Jonathan M. Apgar Roanoke Circuit Court

A state prison guard being sued in a federal complaint alleging abusive treatment of inmates is entitled to a defense provided by the commonwealth, and a Roanoke City Circuit Court grants summary judgment to plaintiff prison guard on this point. ...

Tagged with: Judge Jonathan M. Apgar Roanoke Circuit Court Tort Virginia Circuit Courts

Although a contractor’s 2006 request for attorney’s fees did not specify the basis upon which it relied in requesting fees under its subcontract with a masonry company who lost its suit for higher contract payments, a Roanoke City Circuit Court ...

Tagged with: Contract Judge Jonathan M. Apgar Roanoke Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

The commonwealth may be forced to provide a defense for a former prison guard accused in a lawsuit of playing cruel pranks on an inmate, even though state officials claim the alleged mistreatment was outside the scope of the guard’s ...

Tagged with: Judge Jonathan M. Apgar Roanoke Circuit Court Tort