The Library

The Department of Labor (DOL) promulgated a Final Rule which made a number of changes to the regulations concerning the companionship services exemption from the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These changes were scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2015. The Final Rule would have drastically reduced the number of domestic employees who would be entitled to an exemption from minimum wage and overtime. There are two major components in the Final Rule:  (i) the companionship exemption would only be available to individuals and families who employ workers in the home directly (rather […]

Each year employers and employees in a variety of industries across the country face issues related to violence in the workplace. Given that the hospitality industry faces issues involving everything from alcohol consumption to guest frustration on a near-daily basis, it is particularly susceptible to workplace violence. Generally, workplace violence can be categorized in two ways: (1) violence by one employee upon another or (2) violence by a third party upon an employee. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that on average, 1,700,000 workers are injured each year as a result of workplace violence.  It is so […]

Mineral rights cases are property disputes that often turn on obscure questions of historic ownership or interpretation. For example if a river name changes over time, land previously described as “on the banks of the Smith River” is now on the banks of the Jones River, and the deed may become vulnerable to legal challenge. Likewise, when Becky’s Creek flowed into Smith River, it was a Smith River tributary; but, now, it is within the Jones River watershed. Today’s GPS technology allows us to find our way around anywhere and describe locations not only by postal address but also by […]

This article was first published as a guest post on Gentry Locke’s Virginia Construction Law Update blog.  “Except in the middle of the battlefield, nowhere must men coordinate movement of other men and all materials in the midst of such chaos and with such limited certainty of present facts and future occurrences as in a huge construction project . . .” — Blake Construction Co. v. C.J. Coakley Co., 431 A.2d 569, 575 (D. C. Ct. App. 1981) How true. Anyone who has stepped foot onto the site of a large construction project understands it is little more than bedlam […]

This article by Todd Leeson was published in the Winter/Spring 2015 edition of “Virginia Human Resources Today” magazine, a publication of the Virginia Society for Human Resource Management. In Three D, LLC, 361 NLRB No. 31 (Aug. 22, 2014), the NLRB held that an employer unlawfully terminated two employees who had posted content on Facebook that the employer considered to be disloyal or defamatory. What can Virginia employers learn from this case? Triple Play is a restaurant owned in part by Ralph DelBuono. In January 2011, employees learned that they owed more in state taxes than expected. In response to […]

While we wait for the days of retina scanners to unlock our smartphones — á la movies like Batman (1966 version), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), and GoldenEye (1995) — we must wrestle with whether or not to enable our devices with the now standard thumbprint security identification. In case you missed it, Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Steven C. Frucci ruled that requiring a criminal defendant to provide his passcode to unlock his phone for investigators pursuant to a search warrant violates the Fifth Amendment right to be free from self-incrimination. Judge Frucci explained that giving […]

From Stephen Colbert to rap music, the role of amicus curiae briefs has caught the public eye. On the first day of the 2014-15 Supreme Court term, Stephen Colbert interviewed William & Mary law Professor Alison Larsen about her research into the 800% increase in amici filings over the last fifty years. Colbert described amicus briefs as “informational documents written by third parties who are not involved in the situation, whose opinion was not sought, but still want some say in the decision.” Or, as Colbert spoofed, “the legal equivalents of grandparents.” Professor Larsen does not dismiss amicus briefs outright, […]

I admit it. I am an appellate argument junkie. This has been a long-standing problem, but when the Supreme Court of Virginia began releasing audio recordings of its oral arguments earlier this year, my habit took on new dimensions. I can now listen to hours of appellate argument without leaving the house, car, or office. This has brought new purpose to my long daily commute (I hope the legislature will not make this illegal), and I’m totally hooked. But what’s the big deal, concerned friends ask – audio recordings of Fourth Circuit arguments have been available for some time now. […]

For three years in law school, finishing in 1993, I think I hardly heard the word “mediation,” much less had any courses or training in it. In clerking in the US District Court in Norfolk for a year after that, I don’t recall much, if any, mediation occurring, certainly not with magistrate judges the way it is today. Within days of arriving at work at Gentry Locke in the fall of 1994, however, I can vividly remember having conversations with a colleague about John McCammon starting a “mediation business.” Not long after that, I began getting involved in representing parties […]