Plaintiff , a young sexual abuse victim, has adequately pleaded that there was a special relationship between her and defendants, a local church and its national denomination, which created a duty to protect her from a church deacon who defendants ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia

Temporary continuing workers’ compensation benefits for a total disability were properly suspended in a case where the claimant was partially disabled due to a work-related injury and became totally disabled due to kidney failure that was unrelated to his work. ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia Workers' Compensation

A Virginia judge – appalled over damning evidence in a defamation case – allowed a $500,000 verdict against a school superintendent to stand, despite the acknowledged absence of a key legal foundation. Now the Supreme Court of Virginia has reversed ...

Tagged with: Judge Martin F. Clark Jr. Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia News

Where a school board disciplined a student for nonconsensual sexual touching of three other students, the circuit court erred by vacating the board’s decision. The circuit court misapplied governing legal standards and misinterpreted the record of the disciplinary proceedings, rules ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia

In a case of a two-pronged payback, a man who shot a pair of road-rage assailants and then sued the one who survived may have to try his damages case again in Richmond Circuit Court. Four justices of the Supreme ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Supreme Court of Virginia News

The Supreme Court of Virginia, by a 4-3 vote, has deferred to a trial judge who allowed a juror to remain trial-eligible, despite the man’s expressed doubts about the fairness of medical malpractice litigation. The decision leaves in place a ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Judge Joi Jeter-Taylor Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia News

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Fourth Amendment’s automobile exception does not permit a police officer who lacks a warrant or an invitation to enter a home’s curtilage to search a parked vehicle, evidence seized under those ...

Tagged with: Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Search & Seizure Supreme Court of Virginia

Where a hearing officer determined an inmate violated prison regulations after he tested positive for opiates, his request for a chain-of-custody report, an access log for the drug test results and a list of his current medications was properly denied. ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia

Although at least two Virginia circuit judges have ruled that the one-time use of a vehicle in a single drug transaction is not sufficient to justify forfeiture of the vehicle, the Supreme Court of Virginia now says a single drug ...

Tagged with: Judge Robert M.D. Turk Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia News

Even though the appellee used his truck only once to sell drugs to an undercover informant, the truck had a “substantial connection” to the illegal distribution of a controlled substance and was subject to forfeiture under the applicable civil forfeiture ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Supreme Court of Virginia