Virginia: Legal Recognitions – A Lawyer’s Headline

On August 3, 2020, Virginia Lawyers Weekly headlined on its front page one of Mr. Waterman’s medical malpractice cases. Titled “Judge allows discovery of risk manager notes,” the lead article covers a recent 13-page opinion and 4-page order on multiple privilege claims by the medical malpractice Defendant hospital in the patient fall injury case of Hite v. Mary Immaculate Hosp., Inc., No. CL1903813P-11 in Circuit Court for the City of Newport News, Virginia. Most notably, the Judge ruled that “a deposition [of the hospital risk manager] will not assure that he can obtain the substantial equivalent of the notes,” so the “substantial need” exception to the attorney work product doctrine was shown as to all factual information in the 5 pages of notes. Id. at 1.