The Internet has been a boon to business. It brought local economies into the global market, cut down on communications costs, and made accessible information that was once only available through painstaking research. That is not to say, however, that the technology has not had its drawbacks. Towards the end…
Trial lawyers drafting lawsuits on behalf of their clients generally try to plead as many causes of action as possible. In particular, they often try to add “tort” claims to a case that is really just about a breach of contract. Virginia law generally does not permit recovery on tort…
Windows 7 was not my idea. But the new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure? Maybe! A few years ago I received a stern reprimand from a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia for supposedly filing a brief past the 5-day deadline. I respectfully explained to…
Fraud is a word that is thrown around a lot in everyday life. When pundits discuss the latest political or Wall Street scandal, the discussion often turns to the bad actors’ “fraudulent” behavior. In ordinary, non-legal parlance, the word fraud can mean anything from merely bad intent to criminal behavior.…
The discovery process, the primary fact-finding tool available to litigants, has always been contentious. Parties are loathe to hand over potentially embarrassing or incriminating documents, and the costs involved can be staggering. The information age has only served to make things more complicated. As the Northern District of Illinois observed…
In Virginia, an action for trespass is no longer the only remedy a landowner has against a trespasser. A Norfolk judge recently held that a landowner may sue for rent even in the absence of an express or implied lease agreement. A duty to pay rent can arise under the…
The Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) and the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Company (TrAILCo) plan to build a 265-mile, 500-kilovolt transmission line between Loudoun County, Virginia, and Washington County, Pennsylvania. They claim that due to rapid growth in the Washington, DC metro area, energy consumption along the Potomac will likely…
The First Amendment protects a public employee from retaliation by his or her employer when the employee speaks out on a matter of public concern. But before discharged government employees go rushing into court to sue the government entity for which they worked, they would be well advised to take…
When entering into a contract with a party based in another state, Virginia businesses may wish to include in their agreements a clause specifying that any future disputes arising under the contract will be litigated in Virginia rather than the home state of the other party. For example, if you…
Lawyers who represent clients in litigation often assume that they can simply withdraw from the case if the client stops paying the lawyer’s bills. Engagement letters and representation agreements often provide that an attorney will withdraw in the event of nonpayment. A federal court sitting in Richmond, Virginia, however, denied…