The Virginia State Bar is signaling a change of position on an issue that regularly arises in litigation: May a plaintiff’s lawyer talk directly to an insurance adjuster without asking permission from the defense lawyer. The answer may soon be ...

Tagged with: Insurance Legal Ethics Opinion Supreme Court of Virginia News Virginia State Bar

“No more do-overs.” That’s what one appellate specialist said about last week’s published order from the Court of Appeals of Virginia announcing a dismissal penalty for failing to follow the rules for petitions for appeal. The court in March had ...

Tagged with: Judge Larry G. Elder Supreme Court of Virginia News Virginia Court of Appeals News

In the beginning there were three. Clerks, that is. Fifty years ago this month, the Supreme Court of Virginia hired its first class of judicial law clerks. And that first class had three members: John Pedigo, law clerk for Justice ...

Tagged with: Judge James W. Haley Jr. Judge John A. Gibney Jr. Judge Stephen R. McCullough Justice Harry L. Carrico Supreme Court of Virginia News

When Jared Murayama signed off on a settlement in December 2009, he may have thought he had a pretty good deal. The deal gave him $2 million for transferring stock shares to NISC Holdings LLC, a company that bought out ...

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

An angry doctor’s “disgusting” emails to his ex-wife were not “obscene” under a Virginia criminal law and his conviction for harassment by computer has been overturned by the Supreme Court of Virginia. Where a Court of Appeals majority rejected a ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr. Justice Charles S. Russell Justice Donald W. Lemons Justice LeRoy F. Millette Jr. Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia News

A Waynesboro family can use evidence of other fires in Ford Windstar minivans to sue Ford Motor Company for the wrongful death of their three-year-old daughter after their minivan caught fire in their driveway. Earlier, an Albemarle County Circuit Court ...

Tagged with: Albemarle County Circuit Court Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice Cynthia D. Kinser Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Supreme Court of Virginia News Wrongful Death

A trial court can impose a “civil death penalty” for discovery abuse, but taking away the right to cross-examine witnesses on damages was “too harsh,” the Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled. The ruling in Nolte v. MT Technology Enterprises ...

Tagged with: Judge Margaret P. Spencer Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice Donald W. Lemons Supreme Court of Virginia News

A closely watched case about a lawyer who testified against his ex-client has been remanded – but not on the grounds that observers were expecting. In Turner v. Commonwealth (VLW 012-6-089), the high court said that a trial judge in ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge C. Peter Tench Justice Donald W. Lemons Justice William C. Mims Newport News Circuit Court Supreme Court of Virginia News

Court-appointed criminal lawyers in Virginia are feeling a new pinch – the Supreme Court will no longer pay for printing services for their appeal petitions. The change coming next month apparently is designed to save money – the court already ...

Tagged with: Supreme Court of Virginia News

The Supreme Court of Virginia’s recent resolution of a zoning case by unpublished order has caused confusion both on the high court and among observers, where none is warranted. In its unpublished order in Town of Occoquan v. Elm Street ...

Tagged with: Judge Mary Grace O'Brien Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice Cynthia D. Kinser Justice Donald W. Lemons Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Justice William C. Mims Land Use & Zoning Prince William County Circuit Court Supreme Court of Virginia News