Miscellaneous | InjuryBoard Richmond

How soon they forget! Just five years after the huge accounting fraud scandal at WorldCom and the collapse of Enron decimated tens of thousands of retirement and investment accounts, the lobbyists for the accounting industry, Chamber of Commerce, and big, publicly held companies have succeeded in convincing the Securities and Exchange Commision to abandon some of the investor protections...

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My partner, Aubrey Ford, prevailed last week in a significant commercial litigation trial. Aubrey represented the plaintiffs in the case of G.C.R., Inc., et al. v. James Clayton, pending in the Circuit Court of the County of Chesterfield, Virginia. After a two- day trial, the Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in this dispute between the two major shareholders in a real estate development...

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A business lawsuit in which record companies claimed that XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. was depriving them of revenue by allowing consumers to store songs can proceed to trial, a New York judge ruled last week. The case is another in recent highly publicized actions relating to the recording industry.The case was brought by Atlantic Recording Corporation, BMG Music, Capitol Records, Inc.,...

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To the horror of many of the victims of Hurricane Katrina who lost their homes in the storm, the insurance industry uniformly denied these folks' property damage claims. Insurers contended that damage to houses in Louisiana and Mississippi was caused by surging flood waters and not by high winds. The insurers said their policies covered only wind damage. The New York Times reports today that...

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I just read that the Marion County Medical Center in Marion County South Carolina has agreed to pay $3.7 million to settle allegations of health care fraud that they had committed against the government. The fraud allegation revolved around charges that the medical center had submitted false claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and the U.S. Military Health Care System. It was alleged that they had...

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This week, the Association of Trial Attorneys of America voted to change their name. This organization, of which I am a member, adopted the new name of the American Association for Justice. This change of the name is not merely some public relations ploy, but is an attempt to reflect what our purpose is. For more than two hundred years, justice has been provided through the American judicial...

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I read USA Today's report, which detailed the eulogies and remembrances of Ken Lay. Not surprisingly, many of his friends took the opportunity to defend Ken Lay and tell the audience that he was a good person. One mourner even stated that he was a "victim of a lynching".None of us will ever really know the kind of man or the kind of character within Ken Lay. However, from a distance, when you...

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As a kid, we would see bagpipe players wearing skirts and often joke about what they were wearing underneath. Sometimes in the practice of law, I have seen judges jokingly remark that they no longer had to worry about their suit selection because of the covering of the robe.Apparently, an Oklahoma Judge took the covering of a robe to a criminal activity. Recently, an Oklahoma jury convicted...

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The concept of blogging has become an outlet for creativity, as well as a source of information for the web surfer. However, a San Francisco Judge was recently angered by one lawyer's blogging. As Law.com reports"according to Judge Karnow's ruling, Attorney Kuo, at various points called his opposing counsel "chicken" when she asked for a continuance, directly alluded to her with some posting...

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Violence against Judges is on the rise. So much so that some Judges now carry a concealed weapon for fear that they will face retaliation for prior judicial decisions. At many courtrooms, Judges now feel the need to park in secure areas and be protected by airport like security.Recently, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) stated that there might be a connection between the violence against Judges and...

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Cruise ship discussion at a dinner table usually divides groups in three categories: 1) those who have cruised and enjoyed it, 2) those who have cruised and have a sea sickness story, and 3) everyone else who has never cruised. Usually, the discussion of a cruise ship always begins and end with how much food is available on the ship. Rarely do we think about whether or not a cruise is safe....

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Years ago, the Republican party prided itself on limiting the federal government's intrusion into our lives. One legislator joked, "No free man is safe, when the legislature is in session." In many instances, Republicans would take the position that states should have the right to legislate relating to their citizens. This was consistent with the Federalist and what was wrong with governance by...

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I recently saw that a republican legislator from Virginia Beach had to file bankruptcy, as a result of his financial condition. Obviously, financial difficulties can happen to anyone. However, when it occurs to a legislator, it raises the possibility that money might influence legislators.It should not be accepted that influence peddling has become a way of life in our Virginia capital. For this...

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This past weekend, a casual stroll through many of the parks in the Richmond, Virginia area would you have made you think it was "pitbull weekend". Strangely enough, there were dozens of owners walking their dogs with make shift leashes. In many instances, it appeared that the dogs were actually walking their owners. On Sunday, one pitbull got loose in Monroe Park and attacked at least five...

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CEO accountability is in the headlines as we watch star witness, Andrew Fastow, being cross-examined by the defense attorneys for Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, in the Enron jury trial. Relevant to this is a bill which has recently been introduced by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, which will attempt to hold CEOs accountable for manufactured products that are dangerous and cause harm to the...

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