Where plaintiff claims the state police violated his rights by denying his application to purchase a firearm, sovereign immunity bars the claim. The state police department, as an agent of the commonwealth, has sovereign immunity and there is no express ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Judge Charles N. Dorsey Roanoke County Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

Judicial emergency orders issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic tolled defendant’s constitutional and statutory speedy trial rights. Overview The parties concede that 103 days, for speedy trial purposes, elapsed from when defendant was arrested to the original trial date ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Charles N. Dorsey Roanoke County Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

The COVID-19 pandemic justifies tolling the right to a speedy trial under a judge’s case-by-case analysis, a Roanoke County Circuit Court judge has ruled. The decision builds on an opinion issued March 30 in Fairfax County. The April 14 opinion ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus Criminal Judge Charles N. Dorsey Roanoke County Circuit Court

Where plaintiff filed a nonsuit motion after a hearing on defendant’s motion to dismiss, the nonsuit motion is denied because the case had been submitted to the court for a decision. Background Plaintiff alleged that defendant Norfolk Southern Railway caused, ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Judge David B. Carson Roanoke County Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

Where defendant doctor’s counsel in this medical malpractice case directed her to photograph plaintiff’s biopsy slides, the photos are attorney work product. Plaintiff alleges that defendants misdiagnosed her with a specific cervical cancer, for which she received treatment. While deposing ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Judge David B. Carson Roanoke County Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

Where plaintiff’s decedent presented at his employer’s dispensary, requested and was denied a blood pressure check, and suffered a fatal heart attack at work a few hours later, jurisdiction over plaintiff’s claim lies with the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission and ...

Tagged with: Judge Charles N. Dorsey Roanoke County Circuit Court Workers' Compensation

On Nov. 3, 2015, the plaintiff, 59, was picked up by his octo­genarian father out­side of his apartment building. Because of the plaintiff’s co-mor­bidities, including a prior stroke, toe amputation, and pancreas and kidney transplants, he did not drive. The ...

Tagged with: Judge Thomas S. Shadrick Million-Dollar Settlements Premises Liability Roanoke County Circuit Court Settlement

A homeowner who alleges a water and sewage backup in his home is attributable to a clog in the town’s sewer line beyond the homeowner’s property, in a portion of the sewer line made less visible by a partially paved-over ...

Tagged with: Judge Charles N. Dorsey Municipal Roanoke County Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

Although two Texas-domiciled defendants have been transacting business in Virginia by buying fiber optic cable from plaintiff Virginia corporation for a number of years, none of plaintiff company’s alleged causes of action are based upon a breach of any duty ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Judge James R. Swanson Roanoke County Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

A federal judge has blocked Volkswagen’s effort to move a group of novel lawsuits over VW’s so-called “dirty diesels” to federal court. Lawsuits filed by Lynchburg attorney James B. Feinman demand loaner cars or rental cars for owners of the ...

Tagged with: Judge Glen E. Conrad Roanoke County Circuit Court