The 4th Circuit upholds Virginia’s voter-ID law, which requires voters to present photo identification when they vote or shortly thereafter, against plain­tiffs’ challenges under the Voting Rights Act and the federal Constitution. The Virginia law, Va. Code § 24.2- 643(B), ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

A financial systems company did not comply with a lease’s early termination provision when it offset its second pay­ment of the required fee of 10 months’ rent with a deduction for providing its own janitorial services; the 4th Circuit re­verses ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul V. Niemeyer Real Estate

Registering a $2.63 million judgment in Maryland 10 years after it was first en­tered in Virginia in 1993 restarted Mary­land’s time period for enforcement of judgments in Maryland; the 4th Circuit says registration of the Virginia district court judgment in ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Creditor's Rights Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Law firms retained to pursue fore­closure against homeowners are “debt collectors” subject to the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a fed­eral appeals court ruled in a case in­volving Virginia Beach law firm Sam­uel I. White PC. In its published ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

A plaintiff who has defaulted on her mortgage loan with Freddie Mac adequate­ly alleged that a Virginia Beach foreclosure firm, Samuel I. White PC, and the substi­tute trustees, are “debt collectors” under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Consumer Protection Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

A lender’s alleged practice of “pyramid­ing” late fees on an installment loan by charging a late fee for any month in which plaintiff borrower paid a loan installment timely and in full, based on prior assess­ments for payments beyond the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Consumer Protection Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

The Internal Revenue Service did not violate the Freedom of Information Act in withholding or producing redacted versions of 10 pages out of hundreds of documents produced to an information technology com­pany that was audited by the IRS, including an ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Administrative Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

A district court erred in applying the Rooker-Feldman doctrine to decline to hear a restaurant’s suit challenging a Maryland state agency’s imposition of conditions on the restaurant’s liquor license; the 4th Circuit says the restaurant is not requesting appel­late review ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Procedure Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Although the government recommended the district court not apply a four-level sen­tencing enhancement in compliance with its plea agreement, it breached the plea agree­ment by informing the district court it had changed its position on the applicability of the enhancement, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Plaintiff prisoner was not a party to a 2010 suit by inmates alleging prison food was so nutritionally deficient it violated their Eighth Amendment rights, and a district court erred in dismissing plain­tiff’s suit on res judicata grounds, the 4th ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Paul V. Niemeyer