The Library

Cate Huff contributes to the “Virginia Hospitality Law” blog. You can read this article and others at VaHospitalityLaw.com. On June 4, 2015, the Virginia Supreme Court held a circuit court erred in excluding evidence of an employee’s work history and quality of past job performance in determining future lost income. The Supreme Court also reversed the circuit court’s denial of a corporate employer’s motion to strike the employee’s punitive damages claim. A former diesel mechanic filed suit against his supervisor and company for malicious prosecution and defamation. Following a jury trial, the jury awarded the employee significant compensatory and punitive […]

Coverage For “Residents” Of Your “Household” Under Personal Liability Insurance Policies As this is written (June, 2015) it is high school graduation time. One phase of life is completed, and another begins. For many, the next stage involves “leaving the nest” – off to college, the military, an internship, maybe even a job, or perhaps the 2015 equivalent of hitchhiking Europe or following the Grateful Dead to discover the true meaning of life. In many instances, this involves “living” somewhere else, even if only for a temporary or indefinite period of time, but ultimately coming back “home” before deciding what […]

Recently, litigants have been relying heavily on Virginia Code Section 8.01-271.1 to shift their legal expenses to the opposing party. Code Section 8.01-271.1 is generally known as Virginia’s “good faith” statute and requires that all pleadings, motions, or other papers filed during litigation are filed for a proper purpose, be well grounded in fact, warranted by existing law, or a good faith argument to extend, modify or reverse existing law. If motions, including oral motions, are made in violation of this statute, a court has discretion to award any appropriate penalty including the fees incurred in responding to a motion. […]

Gentry Locke Partner Todd Leeson is an associate member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys. He has represented private colleges in Virginia on employment law and student conduct issues (including Title IX sexual misconduct matters) for almost 20 years. Todd appreciates the work of Brad Tobias, a former associate at Gentry Locke, who assisted in the compilation of this article.  As the Virginia General Assembly convened in early 2015, there were high profile tragedies and stories regarding the important topic of protecting our college students from sexual assaults. Hannah Graham, a 19 year old student at UVA was murdered […]

Back in the old days (actually less than 10 years ago), most of your company’s important documents and communications were stored in a file cabinet. When your company became involved in a lawsuit and you needed to gather information, you would simply pull the relevant file folders, copy the contents and then provide those materials to your attorney. Welcome to the world of e-discovery. E-discovery is the process of collecting, analyzing, and exchanging electronic data during litigation or as part of a government investigation. Even for a small company, the e-discovery process can be extremely time-consuming and very expensive. Think […]

As anticipated, Governor McAuliffe has signed House Bill 2081. As described in our previous article, as of July 1, 2015, the right of employers in Virginia to access personal social media accounts of employees and job applicants will be restricted. Virginia now joins 18 other states with workplace social media login and password privacy laws. It will be important for employers to understand the limits this new law will impose, and to be sure steps are taken prior to July 1 to change policies and practices that may not be consistent with the new law. Should you have questions regarding this […]

Thomas J. Bondurant, Jr. is the Chair of Gentry Locke’s Criminal & Government Investigations group and served on the Special Committee on Criminal Discovery Rules. Under current Virginia state criminal procedures and laws, a defendant often has no idea what evidence will be presented by the Commonwealth Attorney or who may or may not testify against him/her at trial. Under Virginia law, a defendant is only entitled to know his own statements, his own criminal record, an incomplete accounting of certain documentary evidence that may be used at trial, and any evidence the state prosecutor considers exculpatory. Many responsible Commonwealth […]

As a potential buyer or tenant of real estate, there a number of items that are readily apparent and discernible when you visit a new piece of property or an existing building, such as the location, curb appeal, or price, but the need for a special exception is often overlooked until much later in the process. A “special exception” means a special use that is not permitted in the current zoning district and requires approval by the governing body of the jurisdiction where the property is located. To determine the need for a special exception, the answer depends on the […]

In this era of increasing sensitivity about the release of hazardous substances and other varieties of environmental contamination, industries are, or at least should be, concerned as to whether their liability insurance policies will afford them a defense against environmental claims that are not lawsuits filed in a court of law. Such claims generally come to the attention of management through the receipt of “potentially responsible party (PRP)” and “general notice” letters issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The claims typically seek management’s “cooperation” in the EPA’s investigation of the release of hazardous substances at or from a site […]