Game on? Judge not happy over discovery
Pretrial discovery can be a matter of strategy, and some lawyers even approach it as a game. But one circuit judge in Norfolk isn’t pleased with what he saw as game-playing in a medical-malpractice...
View ArticleFile pass-off can’t pump fee award
As March Madness wanes, like a hoopster’s fadeaway jumper, indulge us please in one more basketball reference. We can’t let a good one get away. Charlottesville’s U.S. Magistrate Judge B. Waugh Crigler...
View ArticleExperts’ travel costs awarded under new test
A Norfolk federal court has awarded reimbursement for experts’ travel time to depositions, but at a rate that is half the hourly charge for time actually spent in deposition. Senior U.S. District Judge...
View ArticleDiscovery responses almost ‘comical’
A discovery fight provoked strong language from an Alexandria U.S. District Court last week. Denise Montanile offered to sell vintage baseball cards on her Web site. Tom Botticelli thought he was...
View ArticleDiscovery documents released in Tech shooting cases
Interrogatory answers from the clinical psychologist who accidentally removed Seung-Hui Cho’s mental health records from the Virginia Tech counseling center have been released by his attorney. The...
View ArticleJudge limits discovery of medical records in UVa murder case
A Charlottesville judge has ruled lawyers for accused killer George Huguely cannot access medical records of victim Yeardley Love other than a prescription for medication. Defense lawyers sought Love’s...
View ArticleCourt says expert draft reports off-limits
Lawyers litigating a patent suit can protect drafts of their expert reports under a new amendment to federal discovery rules, a magistrate judge for the Norfolk U.S. District Court ruled last week. An...
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Court strikes claim after lie about therapy
A hearing-impaired employee who sued Walmart for disability discrimination forfeited both her lawyer and her claim for damages when she lied about receiving mental health treatment. Stephanie Holmes...
View ArticleDeleted emails prompt adverse jury instruction
It’s a hard-fought, high-stakes trade secrets case, with scads of pretrial motions and some two-dozen lawyers involved. A jury trial is set to start this week in Richmond federal court in E.I. du Pont...
View ArticleJudge upholds discovery sanctions for products trial
The maker of a line of child car seats is on trial in Abingdon with a handicap — the court has banned any evidence about why the company chose not to add protective foam to the head area side wings of...
View ArticleJob records ordered for ‘literacy’ discrimination case
The EEOC can obtain five years’ worth of job assignment records from a company that deploys as many as 45,000 temporary workers on a weekly basis, in a case alleging the company illegally discriminated...
View ArticleDiscrimination suit dismissed for spoliation
Document custodians must track a mass of digital data, and are bound to overlook – or delete – documents that later are demanded in a lawsuit. But there are sins of omission, and sins of commission....
View ArticleAn ‘unzip’ drive: Defense bar pushing new rules for broader access to...
Weary of case-by-case skirmishing over discovery, the criminal defense bar has seized the initiative to push for broad change to the rules governing access to prosecutors’ files. Defense lawyers are...
View ArticleComputer-assisted review becomes more popular
The pace for adoption of predictive coding in discovery is accelerating, say lawyers familiar with using computers for mass document review. One Virginia court was an early adopter. In April 2012,...
View ArticleLoudoun judge approves predictive coding results
In the first case to approve the use of predictive coding over a party’s objection, a Loudoun Circuit Court judge has signed off on the defense’s computer-assisted review results in a document-heavy...
View ArticleSupreme Court to weigh criminal discovery reform
After nine years of study and open conflict alternating with utter disregard, a proposal to liberalize criminal discovery in Virginia is now before the Virginia Supreme Court. With only three negative...
View Article4th Circuit limits winner’s e-discovery cost recovery
Tech wizards may tell lawyers that e-discovery advances will cut litigation costs, but lawyers know that the more data is out there, the more their opponents want. There may have been some hope for...
View ArticleRule changes would deal with discovery
Lawyers are concerned that discovery is getting out of hand. The masses of data that are part of everyday operations in modern organizations are generating ever-more complicated discovery demands, even...
View ArticleDebate of criminal discovery now shifts to Supreme Court
The debate over proposed rule changes to open up criminal discovery has officially moved to the Supreme Court of Virginia. The court has asked for comments on suggested amendments offered by a Virginia...
View ArticleProsecutors: Start over on criminal discovery
Virginia prosecutors are urging the Supreme Court to launch a new study of proposed reforms to court rules governing what information prosecutors are required to share with defense lawyers. The request...
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