Under Virginia Code sec. 19.2-294.1, whenever a person is charged with both Reckless Driving and DUI from the same act, and is convicted of one, the court is required to dismiss the other. In Lawson v. Commonwealth (December 11, 2012) a driver was charged with both Reckless Driving and felony DUI (as a fourth offense). He was found guilty of Reckless Driving, a misdemeanor, and asked that his DUI be dismissed per the statute. The government argued
Virginia Code sec. 9.1-1101 (b) (3) requires that breath alcohol test machines be tested and found to be accurate at least once every six months. What happens if the prosecutor fails to prove that this actually happened? According to the Court of Appeals of Virginia . . . nothing. According to the Court, prosecutors don’t have to prove a machine’s accuracy; rather, the defendant has the duty to introduce evidence showing that the breath test equipment
The Federal Court in Roanoke, Virginia recently dismissed a plaintiff’s employment retaliation claim while allowing her sexual harassment and assault claims to proceed. In Auriemma v. Logan’s Roadhouse, Inc., et al. Civil Action No. 7:12-cv-0284 (W.D. Va. Nov. 19, 2012), a former female employee sued the restaurant at which she had worked as a server, alleging sexual harassment, retaliation, and various state law torts (such as assault & battery). The plaintiff, Andrea Auriemma, had worked
The Federal District Court in Danville, Virginia recently dismissed a claim of retaliatory discharge by a male plaintiff fired for encouraging a female employee to complain about his supervisor’s jokes about public hair and male anatomy. The Court found that, while the employee thought that the alleged jokes were unlawful sexual harassment, his belief was not objectively reasonable. Rather, the alleged jokes were merely crude and boorish, and not severe or pervasive enough to rise
The disturbing answer, shown by a recent Virginia Supreme Court decision, is yes. The federal employment discrimination laws generally do not allow suits against supervisors and managers for personnel choices they make for the company. Despite this protection, however, other federal and state employment laws allow supervisors to be held liable for management decisions in some instances. This is shown by the Virginia Supreme Court’s recent decision extending wrongful discharge liability to supervisors and individual