Monthly Archives: October 2013

Separation and Ricketts v. Ricketts

When a marriage is coming to an end, often one of the most difficult and painful parts of the process is the initial physical separation.  Even in an amicable situation, where both spouses agree that it is time to split, the logistics and economics of achieving the physical separation can be daunting at least.  Many times, there is not enough money to carry the burden of an apartment for the exiting spouse, while still paying the mortgage and the other pre-existing marital expenses.  Other times, spouses cannot agree on who should be the one to leave, how the bills should be divvied up, and what should be done with the assets.  The inability to agree can often lead to deadlock. Read More

Golf Course Law: How inaccurate yardage markers cost one golf course millions

There are numerous potential hazards on golf courses – which don’t involve water or sand.  Your golf course may be ripe with legal hazards, which will be far more expensive than a 2-stroke penalty. Have you ever thought about potential liability regarding your distance markers?  In a recent case, a golf course owner was deemed responsible for making sure that yardage markers embedded in the fairway or painted on the cart path were accurate.  What happened?  In this particular case, one golfer hit another golfer standing on the green with his ball.  The golfer on the green sued the golfer that hit him (because golfers are just about always responsible for damages incurred from their ball).  In turn, the golfer Read More

Why I will never rent a car in Virginia

I recently received an emergency call about a young woman who had been stopped by the police for a basic traffic violation.  When the police ran her information through their computer, they found she had a fugitive from justice warrant issued against her out of Virginia.  She was arrested on the spot and taken to the county detention center.  Her wife called me in a panic, and I started to look into the matter right away.  I met with my client at the jail and she handed me the paperwork she had received from the arresting officers.  It said “failure to return rental car.”  I was aghast, surely this could not be what it appeared.  My client vaguely remembered renting Read More