Karen Elliot, a Sands Anderson attorney specializing in employment law, recently published the following article addressing new rules prohibiting commercial motor vehicle drivers from using hand-held mobile devices while driving.  We thought this article would be of particular interest to our Risk Manager readers: In a continued effort to reduce accidents from distracted driving, the federal [...]

Successfully Defending a Lawsuit By Henry Spalding, Esq. Anyone who has been a defendant in a lawsuit will tell you that the process is expensive, time consuming and stressful. I have spent the past twenty years defending businesses and individuals in courts throughout Virginia and can attest to the emotional and financial toll which a [...]

I am so excited to see that the Lewis B. Puller Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic started by my friend and colleague Stacey-Rae Simcox at William and Mary Law School has inspired others around the state to do more for Virginia’s veterans. In fact, this Veterans Day, the Virginia Bar Association is really working to get [...]

The Virginia State Bar’s Standing Committee in Legal Ethics recently issued a legal ethics opinion declaring it unethical for plaintiff’s lawyers to agree to indemnify a defendant and/or his insurer for any third party lien claim against settlement proceeds received by the plaintiff. The Standing Committee has opined that it is likewise unethical for the [...]

Sands Anderson Risk Management Group Leader Terrence Graves wrote the following article for the DRI: Litigation Funding Equals Big Money. The article was inspired by this recent Wall Street Journal article “Funds Spring Up to Invest in High-Stakes Litigation.” (This article is available to subscribers, or those who sign up for a two week free trial. You [...]

This encouraging news certainly brightened my day as a practicing Virginia litigator:  Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly has posted an article indicating movement to codify Virginia Rules of Evidence.  Virginia has long considered codification of its rules of evidence, but previously, the proposed rules never made it past Virginia’s Supreme Court. As discussed in the Virginia Lawyer’s [...]

Amen to Ted Tjaden for writing this article about why “and/or” should never be used in legal writing.  Although I know that “and/or” has its place – it certainly is economical – that place is not in well-crafted discovery requests. Too often I see it when the drafter of the document simply failed to really think about [...]

Here is a recent article written by Henry Spalding, a Sands Anderson litigation attorney, for the Home Builders Association of Richmond newsletter. As a lawyer representing homebuilders and general contractors, I am sometimes asked to assist them in responding to complaints filed against them by dissatisfied homeowners with the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation [...]

The Voice, the house organ of the Defense Research Institute (DRI), the national organization for members of the defense Bar, put out a nice writeup of Chip Delano’s ERISA case of Mullins v. AT&T Corp.. You can download the whole article right here. We’re pleased both for Chip’s results for our client and that he was [...]

We’re very proud that our own Jayne A. Pemberton was named an Influential Woman of Virginia by Lawyers Media on Thursday, May 19. She’s in a class of many remarkable women this year, the third of this recognition coordinated by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Jayne was recognized for, among other things, her work in the Metropolitan [...]