Where petitioner seeks habeas corpus relief on the basis that the commonwealth violated the Brady rule by withholding impeachment evidence, petitioner has not conclusively established that counsel never received the evidence. The circuit court correctly determined there was no Brady ...

Tagged with: Criminal Order Supreme Court of Virginia

Where police found a bag of heroin on top of a bag of marijuana in the console of the car appellant was driving, there was sufficient evidence for a factfinder to determine that appellant had dominion and control over the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Order Supreme Court of Virginia

Where a 16-year-old defendant was sentenced to life without parole for murder and robbery and resentenced to life suspended after 91 years following the decision in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460, 465 (2012), the sentences are constitutional. Miller held ...

Tagged with: Criminal Order Supreme Court of Virginia

A petition for a writ of actual innocence, based on the “purported recantations” of one of petitioner’s accomplices and an informant, a “declaration” from another accomplice, and a proffer that another informant recanted his testimony, is dismissed. Further, we reject ...

Tagged with: Criminal Order Virginia Court of Appeals

Where an attorneys’ fee provision in a private school enrollment contract obligated the signer to pay all attorney’s fees and costs in any action arising from the contract, the provision is unconscionable and will not be enforced. “The Enrollment Contract ...

Tagged with: Contract Order Supreme Court of Virginia

Where the trial court dismissed appellant’s original contract suit after giving the parties the opportunity to sue in Maryland under a forum selection clause and one party did so, the trial court correctly ruled that appellant could not refile the ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Order Supreme Court of Virginia

Where the trial court found for plaintiff but did not issue an order reflecting its ruling and judgment against all defendants until after one of them died, the order was not a final order because it entered a judgment against ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Order Supreme Court of Virginia

Where respondent concedes that petitioner’s plea-based convictions were the result of ineffective assistance of counsel, petitioner is entitled to habeas relief and a new trial is ordered. Petitioner pleaded no contest to felony obstruction of justice and felony eluding under ...

Tagged with: Criminal Order Supreme Court of Virginia

The source of duty rule does not bar plaintiff’s fraud in the inducement claim against defendants arising from business insurance coverage. Plaintiff specifically pleaded that this occurred when plaintiff renewed its insurance coverage. The trial court erred by looking to ...

Tagged with: Contract Order Supreme Court of Virginia

In this ongoing litigation involving claims arising from a foreclosure sale of plaintiff’s home, the court denies his motion for leave to amend the eighth version of his complaint and grants a related motion to strike filed by the Virginia ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Judge David W. Lannetti Norfolk Circuit Court Order Virginia Circuit Courts