A lawyer in the Richmond area practiced Social Security law. As is common in that practice area, the government would pay attorney fees directly to the lawyer providing the services. However, the lawyer in this case had an employment agreement with her firm stating that the money belonged to the firm, even if the funds were made payable to her. Temptation took the best of her, and the lawyer kept many of the checks she
A person was convicted of Possession of a Concealed Weapon when he was caught with handgun in a closed, but not locked, glove compartment in his car. The question on appeal was whether a person can keep a gun in his car’s unlocked glove compartment without a concealed weapons permit. The Court of Appeals reviewed the history behind the concealed weapons law – Virginia Code sec. 18.2-308 — and held that the statute required that
Scanning the tabloids at the local supermarket, it is obvious that divorce cases can involve big bucks. That’s why the rich and famous often employ skilled attorneys regarding business transactions, contract negotiations, and, when necessary, family law matters. To be sure, the run of the mill divorce case in Virginia does not necessarily have the same pizazz as the latest with TomKat (the former union of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for those of you
The Virginia Court of Appeals has held that the Commonwealth’s Attorney can shift factual theories of a crime to convict two different people of the same crime. In 1987, the Commonwealth tried and convicted Lorenzo Williams of Rape and Murder. The rape victim testified that he had raped her. In 2005, Governor Warner ordered all old cases with biological evidence be tested for DNA. In 2010, such a test revealed that Mr. Williams was not
In a complex civil matter, the founder and CEO of a large publicly traded on-line banking company sued his former company for millions after he was voted off as CEO. The company, Online Resources Corporation (ORC), appealed the decision after a Fairfax County jury decided it was liable to pay over $5 million in compensatory damages and over $2 million in attorney’s fees. On appeal, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld the trial court’s decision on