Civil / Business Law

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…

In one of the largest wrongful death cases Virginia has ever seen, a jury awarded a Plaintiff over $6 million dollars to compensate him for the death of his wife in a motor vehicle accident.  The driver of the other vehicle was an employee of Allied Concrete Company, and lost control of his loaded concrete truck, causing it to tip over and land on the vehicle occupied by Plaintiff and his wife.  The wife’s injuries

In a strongly-worded opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, a three-judge panel tossed out a majority of the claims filed by several former players of the Duke Lacrosse team.  The high-profile lawsuits were brought by former Duke players that were falsely accused – and for three of the players, falsely indicted – of raping and kidnapping a stripper during a party.  The players sought damages against the City of Durham,

The Supreme Court of Virginia, effective January 1, 2013, banned “speaking objections” in Rule 4:5 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia. “Speaking objections” are those include argument and suggestions along with the basis of the objection.  They are often used in depositions by a lawyer to tip off or “educate” his client as to a desired answer.  A classic example of a “speaking objection” is “Objection! You’ve asked that question already and

The U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia has denied the cross-motions for preliminary injunctions filed by rival grass seed companies, each of whom had asked the court to put a stop to the other’s allegedly false advertising claims. In the ongoing case of Scotts Company, LLC v. Pennington Seed, Inc., (Civil Action No. 3:12-cv-168) (Nov. 30, 2012), two of the biggest names in the grass seed/plant food business are suing each other over online and