Bar dissenters: ‘No-contact rule’ too narrow
ALEXANDRIA – Leaders of the Virginia State Bar appear split over the ethical boundaries of talking with your adversary’s employees. Dissenters are pressing for a rule that would bar any contact with employees of a litigation opponent. An existing rule limits the prohibition to just the “control group” of an organization. The VSB Council voted […]
VSB Council urges beefed-up ethics rule for prosecutors
The Virginia State Bar Council says a prosecutor has an ethical duty to point out any known exculpatory evidence in a large document dump in a criminal case. Bar leaders are urging the Supreme Court of Virginia to make that duty clear with language in lawyers’ ethics rules. The added language is designed to address […]
Fee proposal for lawyer referral work advances
The proposal to charge lawyers a percentage fee for cases referred to them by the Virginia Lawyer Referral Service survived a “robust” debate before winning nearly unanimous approval by the Virginia State Bar Council. A package of proposed VLRS rule changes – as modified by the Bar Council Oct. 26 – now heads to the […]
Lawyers elect Bar Council members
After contested elections in four of Virginia’s most populous jurisdictions, 13 new faces will join the Virginia State Bar Council next month. A total of 23 lawyers were elected to seats on the bar’s governing body in online elections that ended April 27 and in one circuit meeting in the Sixth Circuit. The list of […]
No duty to report impaired colleague
VIRGINIA BEACH – Lawyers have no duty under bar ethics rules to report or intervene with an impaired attorney unless the impairment leads to a violation of those rules. But a new Legal Ethics Opinion encourages lawyers to seek guidance or encourage the affected lawyer to get help. The document also acknowledges that many lawyers […]
Verdicts & Settlements
- Jury reaches defense verdict in $4M med mal action
- Dental hygienist tripped, fractured right wrist, foot — $190,000 settlement
- Couple contracted Hepatitis A after dining at restaurant — $5.5M settlement
- Elderly man suffers hip fracture after attack by neighbor’s dog — $350,000 settlement
- Motorcyclist injured when vehicle abruptly changed lanes — $300,000 verdict
- Passenger ejected from car in high-speed chase crash — $685,000 settlement
- Defense verdict reached in fraud suit
- 8-year-old killed in crash involving tractor-trailer — $1,100,000 settlement
- Plaintiff conceived child after vasectomy — $250,000 settlement
- Delay in diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy led to surgery — $283,432.18 settlement
- Golfer stepped in sinkhole, fractured ankle — $442,000 verdict
- Jury sides with woman injured in rear-end collision — $300,000 verdict
Viewpoint
- The promise and peril of artificial intelligence in patent law
- Keys to becoming an unfrazzled lawyer
- Confused about federal COVID-19 emergencies ending? You’re not alone
- Generative AI in law: New survey of lawyer perspectives and plans
- Four misconceptions about appeals
- Font choice exposes fabricated document
- USPTO launches first-time filer expedited exam pilot program
- In times of crisis, the ‘tug of war’ is over
- The ever-evolving Fourth Circuit
- Federal protections for pregnant, nursing employees coming
- It’s time for employers to embrace the ‘Big Quit’ and adapt
- Tell the whole truth? I’ll do better than that