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On October 22, 2021, Jonathan Fahey and Travis Tull won dismissal on homicide charges in high profile police shooting case in the Eastern District of Virginia.

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In Kreyskop, et al. v. Town Council of Vienna the Fairfax County Circuit Court overturned a decision by the Vienna Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) denying a local resident’s application for a variance to build a screened-in porch. The Petitioners owned a corner lot in Vienna near a stream, which caused an unbearable amount of mosquitos. The Petitioners wanted to build a screened-in porch for their back yard but were barred from doing so by a setback requirement. A setback requirement is the distance you are required to maintain between the edge of your property and any structure built on the property.

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At first glance, it might seem like the answer to that question is a no-brainer. Who owns your property? You do, of course! In Virginia, however, adverse possession law can allow someone else who occupies your property for a period of time to claim ownership of that property. Adverse possession takes a long time to establish, but if it is done properly, it can be used against you to give someone else ownership of your property, under Virginia state property law.

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A number of Realtors in the Virginia area have been concerned recently about the necessity of adding “hold harmless” language to their agreements when brokering the selling or buying of a home. Since we know this is a cause of real concern for our friends in the real estate industry, we wanted to take a moment and give the legal perspective.

Social media has brought an extraordinary new dimension into our worlds, and your Vienna law firm is here to help navigate it. TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and all of the other social networking platforms have expanded our interactions considerably. Sometimes, this has come with some serious consequences: couples have gotten divorced, for example, over what one person said in a Facebook post, or who was talking to a particular person on Snapchat. All in all, we’d like to think the world of social media has done more good than harm, but there are ways of mitigating the harm, and TATE BYWATER is here to help.

As unemployment numbers continue to climb, and those in power make “suggestions” about things like rent and mortgage payments following the initial months of the COVID-19 crisis without committing the power of the law to back their authority in these matters, times can seem terrifying for tens of thousands of Americans. Your local Prince William County attorney understands, and can assist with concerns about this. On top of it, the $600 additional payment unemployed Americans were receiving ran out as of July 31, and legislators continue to argue about what should happen next. Without a clear plan in place and no backing by anyone in authority, Americans can start to feel depressed, despondent and deeply distressed. Your local attorney is here to help.

The False Claims Act is a piece of legislation specifically concerning qui tam law. “Qui tam” means “as well as” and refers to citizens who bring matters to court concerning harm done to the government as well as to themselves. This is different from a whistleblower, who acts on behalf of a private entity, though the verbiage is often confused. Qui tam law in the United States began in 1863 when a defense contractor was brought to trial for defrauding the government during the Civil War.

In a matter of weeks, TATE BYWATER has observed that the United States’ landscape has changed drastically. Many businesses are shuttered. People don’t gather for lunch or dinner in restaurants or head out for Happy Hour on Friday afternoons. The stock market is tumbling on a daily basis. Fear amongst citizens who would otherwise not react in such ways has prompted hoarding activities, and fights have broken out in some places as tempers flare.

If you run a preschool or daycare and are considering opening this fall, be sure to review your safety procedures and parent handbooks, and consider drafting a COVID-19 waiver.

Some homeowner insurance policies have business exclusions that bar coverage for damages or injuries resulting from activity relating to a business that is operated within the home. This was demonstrated recently by a case in the Western District of Virginia in Roanoke, Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Ins. Co. v. Newman, Case No. 18-cv-00469. In this case, the homeowner provided daycare services for friends and family and stated that she only performed the services for a fee “from time to time.” However, she agreed that she provided daycare services for non-relatives, for which she was paid, and that she did not have daycare insurance.

In a recent decision in the Western District of Virginia at Harrisonburg (Beach v. Costco Wholesale Corporation, Case No. 18-cv-92) a woman was found to be contributorily negligent when she fell on the edge of a pothole in a Costco parking lot. Virginia, D.C. and Maryland follow the contributory negligence rule, which means a plaintiff cannot recover damages where it is found the plaintiff’s negligence contributed in any way to the accident, even 1%.

Wow, it’s nearly ⅓ of the way through 2020: where has the time gone? Did you know that some major state laws took effect last July that have lasting and impacting changes for all Virginians? Your local law firm in Fairfax County is always here to help make sense of these changes and to answer any questions you may have about them.

It’s important to plan for the future, which also means planning for the future when you are no longer in this world. Having a will that states your desires once you are gone is prudent to help avoid conflicts amongst family members and excessive taxation. One issue that can be forgotten in wills is the pets. What happens to your dog or cat when you die? Who will take care of them?