Spring 2006
Articles in this issue:
Celebrity Legal Issues: “Who’s Nuttier? The Nut, or the Nut who Stalks the Nut?”
Issue: Is annoying CNN talk show host Nancy Grace entitled to a protective order against a stalker who wants her to set up a meeting with Osama bin Laden?
Grace v. Loegering, No. 05117278 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., New York County 2005).
Virginia Legal Issues: You Can Call Me Ray, or You Can Call Me Jay, or You Can Call Me Johnny, or…
Issue: Did Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-229(D) toll the statute of limitations in a negligence action where the defendant driver gave the police and his employer false names?
Newman v. Walker, 270 Va. 291, 618 S.E.2d 336 (2005).
Virginia Legal Issues: Do These Stripes Make Me Look Fat?
Issue: Was the appellant entitled to a writ of habeas corpus because his court-appointed attorney did not object to the appellant being tried in his prison jumpsuit?
Jackson v. Washington, 270 Va. 269, 619 S.E.2d 92 (2005).
National Legal Issues: Tax Protesters Take Heart! The Fourth Circuit finds that Failing to Pay Federal Taxes is not a “Serious Crime.” Seriously!
Issue: Is an attorney’s failure to pay his income taxes a “serious crime” subjecting him to disbarment from practicing before the federal courts of the Eastern District of Virginia?
In re Wray, No. 05-1106, 2005 WL 3547971 (4th Cir., Dec. 29, 2005).
A Note from Ed McPhillips
FastCase is Great for Quick Searches;
Ed McPhillips, While Odd, is Great for Detailed Legal Research and Writing
Pithy Legal Quote
The most enlightened judicial policy is to let people manage their own business in their own way.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1841-1935)
The Virginia State Bar Website has introduced to its website a legal research search tool, FastCase. See www.vsb.org (click on FastCase logo). If you are a member of the state bar, which is a good idea if you are practicing law in Virginia, FastCase is free to use. FastCase allows you to make simple boolean searches for nationwide federal and state case law and for federal statutes and regulations. It also links to the Virginia General Assembly’s search pages for Virginia statutes, bills, and regulations.
If you know exactly what you are looking for substantively or have a precise citation to look up, this service could be a tremendous tool for your practice. But (there’s always a but) if you need to research and analyze something in depth and then put together a written work product for your client or for the court’s consideration, FastCase will not make the reading, analysis, and writing any easier.
Hmm… now, whom could you contact who can frame an issue, do the research, analyze the law and apply it to the facts of your case, and finish a written work product tailored for your client’s needs at any phase of state and federal litigation? Better yet, is that person tall, skinny, and bald with an Irish-American surname? Ed McPhillips of McPhillips Legal Research, perchance?