Mother is entitled to reversal of her bench trial conviction for felony child neglect for insufficient evidence, the Court of Appeals says; no evidence proves mother guilty of wanton or willful actions or reckless or indifferent disregard for her child’s welfare. Mother lives in a trailer with her twin three-year old sons and boyfriend. One Friday [...]

The Court of Appeals reverses a commission decision denying temporary total disability benefits after the date employee was seen by a physician who indicated employee would be evaluated for return to light duty work at his next visit; a remand is required to determine the period for continuing benefits. In April 2010, employee was injured in [...]

The Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s jury trial conviction of arson of an occupied building under Va. Code § 18.2-77; our cases hold a dwelling is occupied when residents are temporarily absent and the evidence proves defendant and others regularly inhabited the dwelling he burned after his employment was terminated. Defendant worked as a banquet server [...]

The Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s bench trial convictions as principal in the second degree on felony firearm charges, abduction, and robbery of a business; the combination of circumstantial evidence proves defendant aided her boyfriend’s armed robbery of a clothing store and its customers, she knew and shared his intent to use a firearm to [...]

Defendant is not entitled to withdraw his guilty plea after sentencing for cocaine possession based on possible exculpatory evidence, the Court of Appeals says; the trial court made the inquiry required under Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238 (1969), and defendant fails to meet the two-part test for withdrawing a guilty plea: a good faith [...]

Policies buried in college student handbooks are being cited by universities asserting that they are due a cut of the profits from inventions conceived on campus. Harvard wasn’t one of them, Stanford law fellow Brian Love writes in the Boston Globe. Facebook was invented by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends working in a Harvard dorm on a Harvard computer network, says Love, who is moving to Santa Clara law school as an assistant professor this fall. Harvard “could have asserted a stronger claim to the company than the Winklevoss twins and Paul Ceglia combined,” he writes. Love suggests Harvard made…

The Other Big IPO Today, Facebook makes its historic market debut. But many lawyer-bloggers are talking about a different initial public offering: Last Friday, Web-based legal services provider LegalZoom filed for an IPO of up to $120 million to expand its services in the United States and around the world. Can LegalZoom documents truly compete on quality with a lawyer-for-hire? The answer to that question doesn't matter as much as what clients perceive. Lawyers "will assert that consumers and small business are exposing themselves to liability by using LegalZoom's limited services which will bring regret later," DirectLaw Inc. founder Richard…

A robbery prank known as “Urban Skittles” could result in felony charges, according to a Kansas district attorney. According to a press release cited by KWCH.com, the prank originated in England and works this way: “The ‘game’ is played by an individual or group of youths that run into a random business and yell for everyone to get down on the floor as if they are going to perpetrate an armed robbery. The ‘players’ then count the number of individuals who ‘hit the deck,’ hence the name, Urban Skittles.” The release by the Sedgwick County District Attorney warns that pranksters…

The fathers of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman gave Sanford, Fla., police their opinions about the person who was crying for help in 911 tapes of the Feb. 26 confrontation that ended with the shooting death of 17-year-old Martin, according to documents released by the special prosecutor in the case. Neither said the voice was that of 17-year-old Martin, the New York Times reports. Zimmerman’s father said he thought the voice belonged to his son. Martin’s mother, however, has said it was her son who was screaming on the tapes. An analysis by an FBI lab was not able to…

Justice Stephen G. Breyer has been victimized by criminals for two months in a row. In the latest incident, Breyer’s Washington, D.C., home was burglarized, according to the Washington Post blog the Reliable Source. The burglar made off with a pair of $500 silver candlesticks and a silver set valued at $2,500, the story says. A housekeeper reported the crime when she arrived at the house on May 4. In February, a machete-wielding robber interrupted a bridge game at Breyer’s home on the Caribbean island of Nevis, stealing about $1,000 from the justice, his wife and two others. A suspect…