After a five-day trial marked by a series of evidence rulings, a Lynchburg jury rejected the negligence claims of a nursing home patient who was injured when he leapt from a third-floor window. Despite claims that the nursing home staff ...

Tagged with: Judge F. Patrick Yeatts Lynchburg Circuit Court Nursing Home Malpractice

Plaintiff Dana Jones filed suit on behalf of her husband, Raymond Jones, against a Lynchburg-area hospital system alleging various theories of medical malpractice. In January 2013, Mr. Jones suffered a stroke to the right side of his brain. Three months ...

Tagged with: Judge F. Patrick Yeatts Lynchburg Circuit Court Medical Malpractice Million-Dollar Defense Verdicts

In a decision that one lawyer says will create two separate classes of Virginia jail employees, a circuit judge has ruled that Virginia’s regional jails and their staff are not entitled to sovereign immunity. The decision appears to be the ...

Tagged with: Judge R. Edwin Burnette Jr. Lynchburg Circuit Court

A Lynchburg jury has acquitted a jailor accused of hav­ing sex with an inmate despite the jail guard’s alleged confession during a police interrogation session. “The devil is always in the details,” observed the jailor’s lawyer, who said he poked ...

Tagged with: Criminal Lynchburg Circuit Court

Decedent presented to Lynchburg General Hospital’s emergency department on July 19, 2013, complaining of “one of the worst headaches” she had ever experienced. Decedent’s symptoms in­cluded a week-long head­ache unaffected by over-the-counter medication, dizziness upon standing, nausea, and vomiting. Decedent’s ...

Tagged with: Judge F. Patrick Yeatts Lynchburg Circuit Court Medical Malpractice

A Lynchburg Circuit Court says a plaintiff suing for medical malpractice by defendant physician also has stated a claim for negligent credentialing and privileging with allegations that he reasonably relied on defendant’s credentialing process and that such reliance caused him ...

Tagged with: Judge R. Edwin Burnette Jr. Lynchburg Circuit Court Medical Malpractice Negligence Virginia Circuit Courts

In a psychiatric patient’s suit alleging sexual assault by a hospital staff member, the Lynchburg Circuit Court overrules defendant hospital’s demurrers and holds that plaintiff has stated a claim under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act and a claim for negligence ...

Tagged with: Judge F. Patrick Yeatts Lynchburg Circuit Court Tort Virginia Circuit Courts

A Virginia “patient’s rights” statute can support a negligence per se claim against a hospital filed after a hospital attendant sexually assaulted a psychiatric patient, a Lynchburg Circuit Court has ruled. The statute, Virginia Code § 37.2-400, is intended to ...

Tagged with: Judge F. Patrick Yeatts Lynchburg Circuit Court Negligence

On Jan. 17, 2014, the decedent, Peter Thornton and his girlfriend, were invited guests at the residence of Brian Landergan. The residence was owned by Landergan’s parents. Just after midnight on Jan. 18, 2014, Thornton and Landergan walked out of ...

Tagged with: Judge F. Patrick Yeatts Lynchburg Circuit Court Wrongful Death

The Supreme Court of Virginia had mostly good news this month for lawyers seeking damages in state courts. The court opened doors for disgruntled consumers and removed one possible hurdle for litigants seeking punitive damages. The court also made it ...

Tagged with: Attorney General Mark Herring Consumer Protection Judge Charles F. Sharp Judge F. Patrick Yeatts Judge Joseph J. Ellis Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice William C. Mims Lynchburg Circuit Court Personal Injury Spotsylvania Circuit Court Stafford County Circuit Court Supreme Court of Virginia News