A capital murder defendant moved to exclude evidence of physical damage to the victim occurring after he disposed of her body in a lake. The court declined, in part because such evidence was probative of the manner of disposal. Background ...

Tagged with: Criminal Evidence Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows Virginia Circuit Courts

This case arose from a T-bone car accident on June 10, 2015. Plaintiff was proceeding through an intersection with a green arrow, when the defendant ran his red light and struck plaintiff on his driver’s side. Defendant claimed contributory negligence. ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows Personal Injury Verdict

A Yelp reviewer who successfully defended against defamation claims couldn’t claim attorneys’ fees under Va. Code § 8.01-223.2 because 2017 amendments weren’t retroactive, a Virginia circuit court held. Background Defendant Jeremiah Jones retained Plaintiff Will Nesbitt Realty LLC to assist him in renting a ...

Tagged with: Attorneys Fees Business Law Civil Practice Contract Defamation Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows Tort Virginia Circuit Courts

A lawsuit that misidentified an auto accident defendant may have suffered from a mere misnomer, but an accident victim was still out of court, a Fairfax County judge ruled last month. The case serves as a reminder for plaintiffs’ lawyers ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows

Filed days before the end of the limitations period and never served, the initial complaint didn’t put the defendant on notice of the suit, a Virginia circuit court held. The filing period also wasn’t extended by the defendant’s use of ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows Personal Injury Virginia Circuit Courts

Lim v. Venketapathi (VLW No. 017-8-092, 6 pp.) (Bellows, J.) Fairfax Cir. Ct. Holding:  Where a confessed judgment promissory note is integral to a business purchase transaction, and that transaction is then subject to attack upon fraudulent inducement grounds (among ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows

The Prince William County Circuit Court denies defendant’s request to waive his right to attend, and to absent himself from, the sentencing hearing in this capital murder case. It must be emphasized that this request is obviously not a minor ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Randy I. Bellows Prince William County Circuit Court

A defendant convicted of malicious wounding that occurred in a custody exchange of his daughter, when defendant stabbed his daughter’s maternal grandfather, is not entitled to habeas relief based on a claim of ineffective assistance for trial counsel’s alleged failure ...

Tagged with: Criminal Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows Virginia Circuit Courts

A Virginia defendant cannot overturn his 2011 death sentence based on a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court declaring unconstitutio nal Florida’s capital-sentencing scheme, in which a jury renders an “advisory sentence” but a judge must independently weigh the aggravating and mitigating ...

Tagged with: Criminal Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows Virginia Circuit Courts

A motorist who was hit with a charge of $8,334 for alleged unpaid tolls on her E-Z Pass account, which she obtained in New York state, wins her pro se case against the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authori­ty; the Fairfax Circuit ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows Traffic Offenses Virginia Circuit Courts