One expert should have been heard; another was heard but fell short on linking negligence to damages. Those were the rulings from the Supreme Court of Virginia last month in two medical malpractice cases that help define standards for expert ...

Tagged with: Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia News

The statutory process for removing elected office-holders requires signatures under penalty of perjury from registered voters numbering at least 10 percent of the number voting in the previous election. Background On May 6, 2016, voters of Montgomery County filed a ...

Tagged with: Elections Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia

The circuit court erred in granting summary judgment against a plaintiff whose only expert as to both standard of care and causation was wrongly excluded. The expert should have been permitted to testify because she met both the knowledge and ...

Tagged with: Evidence Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Medical Malpractice Negligence Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia

A circuit court’s decision was not grounds for res judicata in a separate action, when the earlier matter remained pending on the court’s docket and contained no other language indicating it was a final decision on the merits. Background In ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Contract Domestic Relations Family Law Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia

Appellant Abdul Cole was arrested for an outstanding warrant; upon arrest, he was also charged for an open container and possession of marijuana. When Alexandria police took Cole to the jail for booking, the booking deputy said that a strip ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Search & Seizure Supreme Court of Virginia

In rejecting an inmate’s petition to change his name because of his conversion to “the Native American” faith, a circuit court erred by failing to first consider the asserted “good faith” basis for the petition, before reviewing the inmate’s multiple ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia

Despite a narrow vote of disapproval from Virginia State Bar leaders last fall, a Virginia Supreme Court commission is asking the justices to require all Virginia lawyers to annually report their pro bono contributions. In a May 29 letter to ...

Tagged with: John E. Whitfield Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Pro Bono Supreme Court of Virginia Virginia State Bar

A Supreme Court decision – that a warrantless entry onto private property with a drug-sniffing dog violated the Fourth Amendment – did not support habeas relief for appellant, who was convicted of marijuana possession after police brought a drug dog ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Search & Seizure Supreme Court of Virginia

An indictment returned by a grand jury as a true bill in open court is valid even though the order recording the indictment was not entered until after the trial on the indictment, and no objection was made to the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia

An uninsured motorist carrier who declined to pay its insured any sum prior to the insured winning a judgment against a John Doe driver is not liable for bad faith under Va. Code § 8.01-66.1(D)(1), says the Supreme Court of ...

Tagged with: Insurance Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia