The Supreme Court of Virginia adopted amendments to the Rules concerning non-parties filing an amicus curiae brief in the Court of Appeals of Virginia or the Supreme Court of Virginia. (Rules 5:30, 5A:23) These amendments go...more
The most significant development last month in the law of independent contractors was not one of the four cases we summarize below but rather a bill passed by the New York Senate. ...more
On November 21, the Supreme Court of Virginia entered a published order reversing a 14-3 en banc decision of the Court of Appeals of Virginia addressing the applicability of Virginia’s criminal laws regulating cybercrime. The...more
The decision creates an additional tool for protecting corporate information and trade secrets. The Virginia Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s conviction of Taylor Amil Wallace for computer fraud, with three judges...more
Courts are supposed to decide only the necessary things. They’re supposed to avoid weighing in on issues that don’t need a decision. Those principles came to a head in the Supreme Court of Virginia last month in Rebh v...more
In two monumental November 14, 2024 spilt decisions, the West Virginia Supreme Court gives oil and gas lessees a huge win and makes doing business in West Virginia more expensive for oil and gas producers....more
Finding errors in the lower court’s jury instructions and evidentiary rulings, the Virginia’s Court of Appeals struck down a $2 billion trade secrets award, the largest trade secrets verdict in the state’s history. Despite...more
The Virginia Court of Appeals recently issued a consequential trade secrets ruling, reversing a jury’s multi-billion dollar damages award, and finding that the trial court committed several legal errors which improperly led...more
The Supreme Court of Virginia taught appellate practitioners yet another hard lesson in how procedural pitfalls can scuttle otherwise compelling appeals. In Eckard v. Commonwealth, the pitfall was failing to get the complete...more
This morning, June 6, 2024, the Supreme Court of Virginia issued an important decision concerning the construction and modification of restrictive covenants. In Todd J. Westrick et al. v. Dorcon Group, LLC, available...more
On May 9, 2024, the Supreme Court of Virginia held that a lawsuit alleging that the state government had procured a contractor's settlement of a contract dispute using economic duress and bad faith could proceed, rejecting...more
With the expansion in the size and scope of the Court of Appeals of Virginia on January 1, 2022, civil litigators in Virginia have an increased likelihood of a full appeal of virtually any trial court decision. However, since...more
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled in favor of a high school teacher, finding that the circuit court wrongly dismissed the teacher’s claims against his former employer, who had terminated the teacher after he refused to use a...more
The teacher had a religious objection. The Virginia Supreme Court yesterday found in favor of a West Point public school teacher whose employment was terminated because he would not address a transgender student by the...more
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals recently reversed, in part, and affirmed, in part, a lower court decision regarding dismissal of contractual indemnity and implied indemnity claims. WW Consultants was the design...more
The concept of legal standing made headlines in high-profile U.S. Supreme Court cases this summer; but it is just as critical for cases in Virginia state courts. In the land use and real estate development context, the...more
The term “interpanel accord” has increased importance in Virginia civil state court practice after the General Assembly recently expanded the size and scope of the Court of Appeals of Virginia. More information about the...more
In October 2022, the Virginia Supreme Court decided the case of Hawkins v. Town of South Hill (view the opinion here), which fundamentally alters 40 years of precedent in the Commonwealth concerning what is considered...more
Local government actions must comply with the in-person open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act....more
On February 2, in Morgan v. Board of Supervisors of Hanover County, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled against the county zoning board's approval of the Wegmans grocery chain's construction of a distribution center. This...more
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled last week in Berry v. Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County that the Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance, known as “zMOD,” is void ab initio and has had no legal effect since it was adopted by...more
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court of Virginia, in Berry v. Board of Supervisors, struck down the Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance Amendment, familiarly known as zMod, which had been in effect since July 1, 2021....more
The Supreme Court of Virginia on March 23, 2023, published an opinion invalidating Fairfax County's Zoning Ordinance, as adopted in 2021 (Z-Mod). The court found that Fairfax County's approval of Z-Mod during a virtual...more
The Virginia Supreme Court approved on September 19, 2022, Legal Ethics Opinion 1898, which permits a lawyer’s receipt of cryptocurrency as an advance payment for legal services. Notwithstanding the relative novelty of the...more
Many lawyers have confronted the irksome practice of opposing counsel sending emails containing half-truths such as...more