An insurance company’s bid to recover payments for a fire loss was thrown out of court this month because the company failed to preserve the fire scene. U.S. District Judge Michael F. Urbanski of Roanoke said he dismissed the insurer’s ...

Tagged with: Judge Michael F. Urbanski Spoliation U.S. District Court - Western District

Where five Chapter 13 debtors asserted “numerous and novel RICO claims” against Wells Fargo after it put their mortgages into forbearance as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the CARES Act, the reference to the adversary proceeding was withdrawn ...

Tagged with: Bankruptcy Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

Where the defendant was deported to Romania by Immigration and Customs Enforcemen while on pretrial release, and there is no active arrest warrant that would allow extradition, the fraud indictment against her was dismissed. While she argued for dismissal with ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

Where a defendant contracted COVID-19 while in prison, because he had been arrested while attempting to flee the United States and board a flight to Ireland, his motion for pretrial release was denied. Background On Dec. 17, 2019, Marius Catalui ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

Where it has not been resolved whether healthcare professionals caused or exacerbated the plaintiff’s injuries, he has not shown he is entitled to damages in excess of Virginia’s $2 million statutory cap on medical malpractice damages and thus lacks standing ...

Tagged with: Judge Michael F. Urbanski Medical Malpractice U.S. District Court - Western District

A federal judge in Harrisonburg has declined to rule on a constitutional challenge to Virginia’s medical malpractice cap before an underlying malpractice lawsuit is resolved. Lawyers for a young patient suing a group of pediatricians asked U.S. District Judge Michael ...

Tagged with: Judge Michael F. Urbanski Medical Malpractice

Where law enforcement officers for more than an hour ignored the reason for the traffic stop—that the window tint appeared too dark— and instead pursued their unsubstantiated conjecture that the defendant was involved in drug trafficking, evidence obtained during the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

Where the defendants’ medical expert made several substantive changes on the errata sheet following his deposition, but neither the close of discovery nor trial was imminent, the motion to strike the errata sheet was denied. The expert must appear for ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

Where a home health care worker alleged she was touched repeatedly against her will; forced to touch her harasser’s penis through his pants; forcibly restrained and assaulted and subjected to his lying in wait and then exposing himself, she plausibly ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

Where the government indicted a man for conspiring to commit Medicaid fraud and then dismissed the indictment, its failure to expunge his criminal record did not violate the Eighth Amendment because he was never convicted of a crime. The Eighth ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District