Allison Dunn

March 24, 2023 | Law.com

"Photographers are in this impossible position of being snobs about their work and not posting, to being labeled opportunists and copyright trolls because they take offense when people copy their image without getting paid," said David C. Deal, founder and principal attorney at The Law Office of David C. Deal in Charlottesville, Virginia. "At no point are we ever going to apologize for getting compensated for the work."

By Allison Dunn

8 minute read

March 20, 2023 | Law.com

"Merely alleging a daily monitoring function and the participation in the preparation of public statements does not allow this Court to infer that Volkswagen AG 'collaborated with the authors to such an extent that they controlled the [press release's] publication,'" Alston wrote, citing the Second Circuit's 2022 holding in Noto v. 22nd Century Grp. Inc. "In other words, the Amended complaint does not sufficiently allege that Individual Defendants and VWGoA more broadly 'lacked final control over the [press release's] contents or did not make the ultimate decision as to what specific information to include.

By Allison Dunn

6 minute read

March 15, 2023 | Law.com

"Here, Estep contends that his accident occurred while he was loading his car with luggage, which was part of a greater mission of returning home to Chesapeake with that luggage," Judge Frank K. Friedman wrote on behalf of the majority. "Simply put, transporting luggage is a valid and expected use of a vehicle, and one cannot transport the baggage without first packing the vehicle."

By Allison Dunn

5 minute read

March 15, 2023 | Law.com

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejected a defendant's claims that a judge in Massachusetts improperly relied on "personal observations about his own, private gun collection" during a probation violation hearing when determining that at least one weapon shown in a video was a real firearm.

By Allison Dunn

5 minute read

March 14, 2023 | Law.com

"[T]he policy's requirement that the speech directed at government officials 'be respectful and courteous, [and] free of rude ... remarks' appears to cross the line into viewpoint discrimination: allowing lavish praise but disallowing harsh criticism of government officials," the court wrote.

By Allison Dunn

6 minute read

March 08, 2023 | Law.com

"We therefore conclude that the circuit court erred in finding the ELE inapplicable to Neice's action against Dana Mining. Under the language of the applicable ELE endorsement, we find that Neice's claim arises out of Mr. Neice's employment with 'any insured,' i.e., Mepco LLC, and the policy therefore excludes coverage for Neice's action against Dana Mining," Justice William R. Wooton wrote on behalf of the West Virginia Supreme Court.

By Allison Dunn

5 minute read

March 07, 2023 | Law.com

The full Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments Monday on whether a wrongful death claim is time-barred if the statute of limitations for personal injury claims had already expired at the time of death.

By Allison Dunn

5 minute read

March 03, 2023 | Law.com

"When a party objects to a magistrate's judgment on the ground that the judgment contains insufficient factfinding, the party should file an objection pursuant to Rule 118(a) and specifically assert that there are insufficient findings to support the magistrate's judgment. The reviewing court can then adopt the judgment, 'set the matter for further hearing before a judge or magistrate[,] or recommit the matter to the magistrate with instructions.' M.R. Civ. P. 118(a)(2)," Associate Justice Catherine R. Connors wrote on behalf of the unanimous court.

By Allison Dunn

5 minute read

March 03, 2023 | Law.com

"Despite asserting that the requested IOLTA documents were available, Respondent failed to provide adequate duplicate deposit records identifying the matters for which funds were deposited, the individual client ledgers, the general ledger, or the mandatory three-way reconciliations," the order said.

By Allison Dunn

4 minute read

March 03, 2023 | Law.com

"Virginia has a very unique view of data privacy," Beth Burgin Waller, Chair of the Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Practice at Woods Rogers, told Law.com. "If you looked at when this hit, you were really coming at an emerging time when you had Europe with [General Data Protection Regulation] GDRP and California with CCPA. Out of the gate—out-of-nowhere, almost—it felt like Virginia came running to the scene with the CDPA, the Consumer Data Protection Act."

By Allison Dunn

5 minute read