Weekly Edition
When clients attack
By Peter Vieth
August 18, 2008
It’s a tense situation confronted by every criminal defense lawyer. The client is not the most stable individual in the community.
He or she may have been charged with shocking acts of violence. There may be a life sentence, or worse, hanging over the head of the accused.
Yet the lawyer must enter a small room, […]
Former prosecution may have prompted attack
By Sarah Rodriguez
August 18, 2008
A Richmond criminal defense lawyer is lucky to have survived a particularly vicious client attack. “I could have bitten the bullet,” said Charles Cosby, recalling the incident at the Powhatan Correctional Center some 20 years ago.
Cosby was appointed to represent an inmate accused of taking a staffer hostage during a prison uprising. Because of security […]
Noncompete lawsuit can go forward
By Peter Vieth
August 18, 2008
An insurance company is the hands-down winner in a preliminary challenge to its noncompete agreement with a regional manager, as a federal judge turned away every defense offered by the former manager.
The Aug. 11 opinion by U.S. District Judge Glen E. Conrad of Roanoke stands in contrast to a spate of recent Virginia state cases […]
Richmond’s new federal courthouse opens next month
By Alan Cooper
August 18, 2008
Proponents of downtown Richmond development had hoped that the new federal courthouse on East Broad Street would be, as one put it, “a world-class architectural statement.”
The building, which fills the block between Seventh and Eighth streets, might not meet that standard, but few could dispute that it fulfills the goal the General Services Administration set: […]
Arbitration clause catches nonsignatories
By Alan Cooper
August 18, 2008
A government contractor and its corporate officers can force arbitration of claims under a government subcontract, even though some of the corporate defendants did not sign the contract.
Fairfax Circuit Judge Randy I. Bellows said the defendants who did not sign the subcontract nevertheless can invoke its broadly worded arbitration clause to compel arbitration of the […]
First writ of actual innocence granted by Court of Appeals
By The Associated Press
August 18, 2008
(AP) A man convicted of felony firearm possession last week became the first person exonerated under a 2004 Virginia law that allows prisoners to present new, non-DNA evidence of their innocence.
More than 120 other inmates’ petitions had been rejected before the Virginia Court of Appeals granted Darrell Andrew Copeland’s writ of actual innocence.
The […]
Lawyers in the News
By Sarah Rodriguez
August 18, 2008
Jeanne E. Floyd has joined the law firm of Troutman Sanders LLP as an associate in its compensation and employee benefits practice group in Richmond. Floyd was previously an associate with Williams Mullen.
Her practice focuses on all aspects of employee benefits law relating to tax-qualified retirement plans, non-qualified deferred compensation plans and welfare plans.
Floyd […]
Northern Virginia legal aid office announces foreclosure project
By News in Brief
August 18, 2008
Legal Services of Northern Virginia has launched the Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project (FLAP) to provide legal assistance for those who are facing foreclosure on their homes.
Northern Virginia has experienced some of the highest rates of foreclosure in the nation with Fairfax County’s foreclosures for 2008 already far exceeding the total number of foreclosures […]
Original suspect not cleared by DNA evidence of another
By News in Brief
August 18, 2008
A man once convicted of a 1975 slaying of an elderly Emporia woman has not yet been exonerated by DNA testing that implicates another man.
Virginia State Police said last week that a review of old DNA evidence led to the arrest of Thomas Pope Jr. of Emporia on charges of rape and first-degree murder. […]
Pardon by Kaine leads to deportation delay
By News in Brief
August 18, 2008
A Newport News woman who faced deportation Thursday for a decade-old crime has received a one-year extension a day after being pardoned by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.
Kathryn Anne Ingleson, 31, found out Wednesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had granted a request to postpone her deportation, her attorney said. Earlier Wednesday, a Newport […]
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- FDIC will back full amount of IOLTA accounts
- Litigation over who missed deadline expands to four suits
- Downtown diners and courthouse cafes
- Lawyers in the News
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