A bedrock of Virginia law is intent. What someone intends is as important as what someone does. It is dressed up with a Latin phrase: mens rea. Mens rea refers to the defendant’s state of mind. It describes the mental condition that the prosecution must prove a defendant had when committing a crime. Desertion in Virginia law very much hinges ...
Hatmaker may be a funny-sounding last name, but that is the only thing funny about Jordan Hatmaker. The 35-year-old Virginia Beach skydiving native survived a terrifying freefall of 13,500 feet when her parachute tangled. We emphasize her age only because she was not a child. Had she been a minor, such a stunt would qualify as an “unsafe environment.” But ...
Barroom lawyers are interesting folks. If you want to start a friendly—or not-so-friendly — argument spirited discussion in a Virginia bar, take bets on the concept of “legal separation in Virginia.” Hint: Virginia has no mechanism for “legal separation.” A married couple is either married or divorced, and during the time before divorce, you two are separated but still married ...
Teachers often use teaching methods their own teachers used on them, sports coaches rely on outdated training from their own performance years, and parents discipline their children using techniques their parents used on them. Your wife may have been raised in a talk-it-out home while you suffered with The Paddle. What can you two do so you present a united ...
Most people seem to link messy with divorce, and then wrinkle up their noses. But another word reflects the undercurrent most people do not want to think about: expensive. Divorce is a costly proposition. One tactic to reduce the financial impact is to make the spouse pay for both lawyers, right? Well, that only works some of the time. Stacked ...
Cremation yields about five pounds of ash. Cremains are of no commercial value, which means the brouhaha in the news recently—a woman is accused of stealing her dead sister’s ashes—centers on sentimental value. Determining the value of household items (including Grandma in her urn) comes down to three decisions. How to Determine “Book Value” If you have ever bought or ...
Winning big prizes from Publishers Clearing House generally involves a drawn-out series of mailed tasks — filling out forms, sending in “Almost a Winner” cards — in a process lasting weeks. Sure, you may already be a winner of the Grand Prize, but do not count your cash before the Prize Patrol appears. The same goes for getting a green ...
Virginia’s laws are full of odd expressions: in loco parentis; legitimate interest; confirmatory adoption. Sure, they all mean something to someone, but most Virginians can live their entire lives without ever stumbling into these words. Unless you are a stepfather or a nice guy trying to do right by a woman you love by acting like a father to her ...
Gristmills are still scattered across Virginia1, though they have had little or no role in grinding our wheat into flour for about a century. We mention gristmills because, in the third century a Greek philosopher2 came up with the catchy phrase, “The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind small.” That has come down to us as, “The ...