Norfolk Circuit Court Judge Charles E. Griffith has lost his bid for another eight-year term, reports The Virginian-Pilot. One House Republican leader acknowledged that Griffith, who served as commonwealth’s attorney before going on the bench, will not be reelected.
Alfred M. Tripp, the Norfolk circuit judge who has not been on the bench since October, has resigned, according to his lawyer.
The reason?
Tripp’s lawyer, Carl Eason, isn’t talking, citing client confidentiality.
The Virginian-Pilot quotes one source as saying that Tripp had been barred from the courthouse.
The reason?
Again, no one is talking, at least for the record. It’s worth noting that reporters for Virginia Lawyers Weekly ran into the same problem as our colleagues at The Pilot. Their first story back in October was somewhat opaque. There have been stories swirling, but nothing that we were willing to publish. Still.
The bottom line: The General Assembly potentially will select three, count ‘em, three new circuit judges for Norfolk, one of the biggest circuits in the commonwealth:
* Tripp has resigned.
* Judge Jerome James is retiring.
* Judge Chuck Griffith, at least for now, doesn’t look likely to get another term.
Paybacks are, well, um, we won’t say what paybacks are.
But televangelist Pat Robertson, who has been unhappy with The Virginian-Pilot and its coverage of him and his activities, may buy the newspaper.
Norfolk-based Landmark Communications Inc. announced earlier this month that it will explore selling its assets, including The Pilot and The Weather Channel. Robertson said The Pilot would be useful in providing journalism internships for Regent University, the school he founded.
Who better to have the story than The Pilot itself?
The Virginian-Pilot is reporting that Norfolk Circuit Judge Alfred M. Tripp has been barred from court.
The paper’s source did not state the reasons for the action. The judge’s docket was transferred to another judge Friday and a substitute judge was scheduled to sit today.
The source spoke anonymously due to the secret nature of proceedings of the Judicial Inquiry & Review Commission, the paper said.
A new suit in Norfolk federal court involves … pancakes.
Actually, it involves two companies that run pancake houses, one in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the other in Williamsburg (where pancake houses are as common as tourists), and their names.
The Virginian-Pilot reports that the company that runs restaurants called “Stack’em High Pancakes,” located in Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills, has filed a trademark infringement suit against a couple that runs “Stack’Em High Pancakes and Waffles Restaurant” in Williamsburg.
The plaintiff company says it has been in operation since 1981 and that its name is a registered trademark. The suit says the defendant company went by another name until 2005.
The Outer Banks “Stack’em High” touts that it has the “Best Breakfast on the Beach.”
The Williamsburg “Stack’Em High” says it has the “Best Breakfast & Lunch in Williamsburg.”
Sounds like the judge might need to order a jury view to decide this one.
(Note: The picture above of the little bowing pancakes was taken from the Web site of the NC “Stack’em High.” The Williamsburg “Stack’Em High” site has a picture of a pretty tasty-looking plate-full. Click on the link to see for yourself.)
The Norfolk jail has changed its lawyer visitation policy … again.
Now, lawyers can visit their clients behind bars in the cell blocks, so long as they sign a waiver form acknowledging the jail’s safety policies, reports The Virginian-Pilot.
The sheriff changed the policy last year to require lawyer-client meetings in visitation rooms after female attorneys complained about lewd comments and gestures. Under this latest policy, lawyers are required to report any “offensive language or behavior” to the jail.
A Norfolk bar owner tried to justify his sans-permit construction of a second-story bar on the Ocean View Fishing Pier by calling it his “office.”
After the pier was destroyed by Hurricane Isabel in 2003, the owner promptly began reconstruction. Along the way, he apparently decided better meant bigger, and added to his commercial pier, the site of the former Harrison’s Fishing Pier, a new bait shop, restrooms, snack bar and recreational room, and a gazebo.
Owner Ronald W. Boone ultimately built a full-service restaurant and bar, with facilities for nightly live bands and other entertainment. When the Virginia Marine Resources Commission asked for more detail on the proposed project, Boone dragged his feet even though construction was underway on the $2.5 million project.
On the theory that it’s better to ask for forgiveness after the fact than to seek permission beforehand, Boone went before the VMRC in January 2006 to seek after-the-fact approval for the second-story bar he built.
Boone told commissioners, “The bar is where I do my paperwork,” and he would “put something in there where I can get up and out of the way of all the fishermen that come in.”
The commissioners approved the structure, but Norfolk Circuit Judge Norman A. Thomas said the second-story bar has to come down.
On March 22, Thomas said in Harrison v. VMRC that the commissioners didn’t even bother to consider the 100 pages of documents submitted by a neighbor who challenged the structure, or the CD she had recorded of the over-the-water noise.
The law firm of Willcox & Savage was one of the first tenants to move into the Bank of America Building when it opened in downtown Norfolk in 1967. But The Virginian-Pilot reports that that the firm’s Norfolk office will be changing addresses in 2010. The firm will move to the Wachovia Center, a $150 million project currently under development next to the MacArthur Center.
Norfolk Circuit Clerk George Schaefer is overseeing an ambitious project: He wants to make his office paperless. Right now, his staff scans every civil filing that comes in the door. They’ve scanned almost all the land records – which, in an old jurisdiction such as Norfolk, date back to the 1700s. The Virginian-Pilot reports that Schaefer could cut $2 million off the cost of building a new courthouse by reducing the need for storage space.
Accident report cases were a big deal about eight or 10 years ago, as plaintiffs’ lawyers duked it out with insurance companies over access to accident reports or statements taken by adjusters after an incident. Cases came in frequently and from all over the state. The results went both ways, so everyone could stay tuned and have a rooting interest.
The accident reports issue never made its way to the Supreme Court of Virginia. The cases often are fact-based, turning on whether the report was “prepared in anticipation of litigation.” That is, if the carrier was getting ready for suit, the plaintiff couldn’t have it. And practically speaking, there usually wasn’t enough at stake to merit a trip to the Supremes. But you can believe that both the plaintiff’s bar and their defense colleagues were keeping tally and reading the facts of each decision closely.
A new one came down last week. Judge Everett A. Martin Jr., who seemed almost surprised to find an accident report case on his desk, ruled in McKinnon v. Doman that a carrier must fork over the taped statement its adjuster took of its insured driver following a wreck. A bicyclist is claiming that the guy caused her to collide with a truck as she sought to avoid hitting his car.
Martin dusted off the prepared-in-anticipation test. It boiled down to whether the insured had hired a lawyer before talking (he had not) or whether the plaintiff’s lawyer had notified the carrier before the statement was taken. In the McKinnon case, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Buz Gilbert, signed on three days after the tape was made. Motion granted.
