Virginia Supreme Court, 4-3, decides about liability for trees falling
A property owner is not liable under ordinary circumstances if one of his trees falls on his neighbor’s house....
Read More »
Supreme Court reverses reversal of conviction
The Supreme Court’s decision in Coleman v. Johnson, reversing the Third Circuit’s decision to overturn Johnson’s conviction, seems like not a very big deal, unless you spend a lot of time looking at U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The Court almost never summarily reverses a lower-court decision in favor of a criminal defendant, but it did here, and that is just another indication of how far the pendulum has swung against criminal defendants. ...
Read More »
Domestic strangulation and domestic homicide
The Maryland legislature’s effort to punish domestic strangulation more harshly, while being rooted in a medical paper, is ultimately misguided. Domestic violence laws need to result in more interventions into abusive relationships, not necessarily more jail time....
Read More »
Love family sues University of Virginia and Athletic Department staff
The Yeardley Love family has sued the University of Virginia over the fact that George Huguely killed their daughter. In bringing this suit, the attorneys claim that the University of Virginia has a “special relationship” with its students, which includes an agreement to protect them. The problem is that they probably DON’T have that duty....
Read More »
Changes are coming in Virginia DUI laws on July 1
Virginia DUI laws are changing effective July 1, requiring much greater use of ignition interlock devices. Look at the changes, and how they will affect people charged with DUI in Virginia....
Read More »
Yeardley Love family sues George Huguely
Yeardley Love’s mother has filed suit against George Huguely, alleging that he is responsible for her death. The suit is for more than $29 million. ...
Read More »
Justice Scalia approaches the healthcare debate as a political one
In the recent oral arguments over the healthcare debate, Justice Antonin Scalia showed in his questioning that the debate for him was about politics, not about law. ...
Read More »
Foreign drugs can’t be imported to kill people
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon has ruled that states who want to use sodium pentothal as a part of the mixture of drugs that goes into a lethal injection can’t use imported pentothal, because the FDA has not certified that it is safe. Conservatives have the knee-jerk reaction — “judicial activism” — but any analysis of what “judicial activism” disproves that idea....
Read More »
Virginia Tech verdict is a matter of principle to the families
The jury verdict that awarded the families of Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde $4 million each for their deaths during the 2007 rampage of Seung-Hui Cho is based on the jury’s understanding that Tech administrators had a duty to protect their students, and that they failed in that duty....
Read More »
Culpeper murder verdict reversal highlights flaws in system
Michael Hash was falsely imprisoned for 12 years on a capital murder conviction based on prosecutorial and police misconduct. And Virginia’s trial procedures need to change so that this doesn’t happen again....
Read More »
