Huzzah! The codified Rules of Evidence has passed the Virginia’s legislature after some late opposition from four Senators. The Sands Anderson Risk Manager blog first reported on the proposed rules back in October. In a comment to that article, attorney and then-President of Sands Anderson Pierce Rucker noted, “We certainly have [Sands Anderson's] own Bunky Miller to thank, and many of his colleagues [...]

Bloomberg Businessweek posted an interesting video featuring Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, Inc. talking about how women don’t identify themselves as “ambitious” and don’t seek leadership roles in business organizations.

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 [...]

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 [...]

Should we turn up the heat on school administrators to protect younger students from bullying by imposing civil liability for suicides that result from a student’s harassment at school or is this the wrong vehicle for finding ways to increase protections to students harassed by other students in ways that are outside the protections of Title IX? Do school officials have a duty to keep kids physically safe from bullies, but leave kids like Clementi unprotected from cyber bullies?

On June 10, 2010, the Supreme Court of Virginia issued two rulings that could have important impacts on Risk Management clients.

Research and analysis by Eric Howlett, summer associate at Sands Anderson, PC. Eric is a student at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. On June 7, 2010, in Krupski v. Costa Crociere S.p.A., No. 09-337, slip op. at 1 (U.S. June 7, 2010), the Supreme Court of the United States held that “relation [...]

Under Virginia statute, an ex-felon is competent to testify as a witness, but his credibility can be impeached on cross-examination with the fact of his conviction. Virginia’s statute differs from the Federal Rules of Evidence in this regard, because there is no time limitation on when a felony can be used to impeach a witness’s credibility.