On February 17, 2014, Mr. Waterman’s two Motions to Compel discovery came before the Court for hearing in the wrongful death case of Eason v. Sentara Hospitals, et al., No. CL12000470 in Circuit Court for the City of Hampton, Virginia. The Judge in Eason took...
On February 16, 2014, the Virginia Supreme Court heard oral argument in the consolidated wrongful death appeals in Harman v. Honeywell, Inc., No. 130627. Mr. Waterman authored the Brief Amicus Curiae and Reply Brief Amicus Curiae for the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in Support of...
The Virginia Trial Lawyers Association filed Brief Amicus Curiae in Support of Appellant in the wrongful death suit, Temple v. Mary Washington Hosp., Inc., No. 131754 in Virginia Supreme Court. The final issue covered by Mr. Waterman in that Brief is the discoverability of metadata,...
The following is an excerpt re admissibility of policies from Brief Amicus Curiae of Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in Support of Appellant recently written by Mr. Waterman. It was lodged in the wrongful death appeal of Temple v. Mary Washington Hosp., Inc., No. 131754 in...
Temple v. Mary Washington Hosp., Inc., No. 131754 in the Virginia Supreme Court, is a wrongful death appeal that raises the discoverability of policies and of metadata. The following re policies discovery is excepted from Brief Amicus Curiae of Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in Support...
On April 7, 2014, Mr. Waterman lodged with the Virginia Supreme Court of Virginia the Brief Amicus Curiae he authored on behalf of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (“VTLA”) in Support of Appellant in the wrongful death case of Temple v. Mary Washington Hospital, Inc.,...
On March 28, 2014, Plaintiffs filed Memorandum is Support of Agency in Gibbons v. Riverside Medical Group, et al., No. CL10-2326T01 in Newport News Circuit Court. Defendant obstetricians, Dr. James M. Mullins, III and Dr. Glenna Henderson, oppose Plaintiffs having served them lawsuit process through...
On March 25, 2014, the wrongful death case of Tracy Whitby, Administratrix of the Estate of Kelvin Parker, Deceased v. Peninsula Neurosurgical Associates, Inc., et. al, No.: CL1304969T-01 in Circuit Court for the City of Newport News, Virginia, came on for supplemental evidentiary privilege hearing...
Trial is the monthly magazine of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), formerly the American Trial Lawyers Association (“ATLA”). Its issue for March 2014 is entitled “Equal Footing? Gender equity in the law and your role in it”. The lead article is “BLAZING THROUGH MASS TORTS,”...
On March 20, 2014, the Virginia Supreme Court granted Mr. Waterman’s Motion for Leave to File Reply Brief Amicus Curiae of Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in Support of Appellants in Harman and Bemberis v. Honeywell Int’l, Inc., No. 130627. In that consolidated appeal of manufacturer...
On February 27, 2014, the Virginia Supreme Court issued Rodriguez v. Leesburg Business Park, LLC, No. 122029. It reversed the dismissal of a tort action for wrongful death. Id. at 1, 10. Rodriguez found out that the construction victim employee’s work was not the “trade, business...
On February 27, 2014, the Virginia Supreme Court handed down Coalson v. Canchola, No. 130837, an automobile accident case in which it reinstated a punitive damages award of $100,000.00 that had been remitted to $50,000.00 by the trial court under protest by Plaintiff. Coalson held...
In Harman v. Honeywell Int’l, Inc., No. 130627 in the Virginia Supreme Court, writ of certiorari was granted inter alai on two assignments of error re defendant introducing opinion testifying of two lay witnesses. Mr. Waterman addressed those issues for plaintiffs in Reply Brief Amicus...
On March 12, 2014, the medical malpractice lawsuit of Whitby v. Peninsula Neurological Associates, Inc., Richard B. McAdam, M.D., Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital, and Mary Immaculate Hospital, Incorporated, No. CL13-4969T-01 in Circuit Court for the City of Newport News, Virginia came on for evidentiary...
Instruction and evidence re multiple proximate cause is the third issue Mr. Waterman authored in the Reply Brief Amicus Curiae of Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in Support of Appellants in Harman v. Honeywell, Virginia Supreme Court No. 130627. The underlying consolidated Chesterfield lawsuits in Harman...
Harman v. Honeywell Int’l, Inc., No. 130627 in the Virginia Supreme Court, are consolidated wrongful death appeals arising out of product liability lawsuits for a private plane crash in Chesterfield County, Virginia. The second issue covered by Mr. Waterman in his Reply Brief Amicus Curiae...
On March 4, 2014, Mr. Waterman authored and lodged Reply Brief Amicus Curiae to the Virginia Supreme Court of Virginia Trial Lawyers Association in Support of Appellants in the consolidated wrongful death appeals in Harman and Bemberis v. Honeywell International, Inc., Record No. 130627. One...
This past week AlfaVision as Defendant’s $25,000.00 liability insurer and Nationwide as Defendant’s $300,000.00/1,000,000.00 UIM/umbrella insurer produced Mr. Waterman the transcriptions and tape recordings of their contemporaneous insurer witness statements. The insurers had claimed their witness statements were “privileged” work product, and they imminently faced...
Avery T. “Sandy” Waterman, Jr., Esq. has been selected to “Virginia Super Lawyers” for 2014. That represents the 6th consecutive time since his first induction in 2009 that he has been named to the list. Super Lawyers selects lawyers based on nominations and research annually. “Each...
In Virginia Broadcasting Corp. v. Commonwealth, No. 122013, the Virginia Supreme Court held the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the media’s request to have a camera in the Courtroom during the sentencing hearing of a highly-publicized murder trial. Id. at 18....
Trial is the monthly magazine of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), formerly American Trial Lawyers Association (“ATLA”). Its issue for February, 2014, is entitled “TRANSPORTATION,” covering a wide variety of vehicle crash cases in 5 lead articles. The first is “SPOTTING PRODUCT ISSUES IN TRUCKING...
On January 10, 2014, Shebelskie v. Brown, No. 13053, was handed down by the Virginia Supreme Court. It concluded that two lawyers did not violate Va. Code Ann. §8.01-271.1 because one did not sign the brief in question or make a motion, and because the...
The Winter issue of The Trial Lawyer, the quarterly publication of The National Trial Lawyers “Top 100 Trial Lawyers,” features “THE VEHICLE SUBMERSION PROBLEM: THE ROLE OF DESIGN IN PREVENTING DROWNING DEATHS”. Id. at 24-27. Submersion deaths and catastrophic injuries most commonly result from car...
On February 11, 2014, Patient’s Motion to Enforce §8.01-413(C) Subpoena Duces Tecum and Defendant’s Motion to Quash came before the Court on supplemental evidentiary “privilege” hearing in Joanne T. Rauchfuss, Administratrix of the Estate of George William Rauchfuss, Jr., Deceased v. Roger E. Schultz, M.D.,...
In Rhoten v. Commonwealth, No. 130456, the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed a civil commitment under the Sexually Violent Predators Act (“SUPA”), Va. Code Ann. §37.2-900, et seq. Id. at 12. Rhoten held that res judicia did not prohibit an inmate “determined in a prior...
The Winter quarterly of The National Trial Lawyer’s “Top 100 Trial Lawyers,” The Trial Lawyer, features an article on truck crashes, “THE UNHOLY TRINITY: TALKING, TEXTING AND TRUCKING – THE EPIDEMIC, THE LAW AND HOW TO WIN YOUR CASE.” Id. at 16-18. Its statistics are...
In Commonwealth v. Peterson, No. 121717, the Virginia Supreme Court set aside 2 $4,000,000.00 wrongful death jury verdicts against the Commonwealth in favor of 2 families of slain Virginia Tech students, which had been reduced to $100,000.00 apiece under the Virginia Tort Claims Acts by...
American Association of Justice’s January 2014 issue of Trial features a medical malpractice article: “ANTIDEPRESSANTS & BIRTH INJURIES” Id. at 44-48. It covers the special cases of product liability against pharmaceutical manufacturers of Paxil, Zoloft, Effexor, Celexa/Lexapro, and other drugs. Id. “Several antidepressants have been linked...
In Burkeen v. Commonwealth, No. 122718, the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed a conviction for malicious wounding, even though the unprovoked assailant only struck his defenseless crime victim with a single bare fist blow to the face. “We hold that, under the circumstances, there was...
The Trial Lawyer is the quarterly publication of The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers. Its Winter 2013 issue features an article on medical malpractice: “LITIGATING IDIOPATHIC NECROTIZING FASCIITIS CASES.” Id. at 20-22. Idiopathic necrotizing fasciitis (”NF”) cases often are more difficult than secondary NF...