Countersuit blues

Plaintiff: Alan Swanson Defendants: Bernard J. DiMuro, DiMuro Ginsberg P.C., and Katharine Almy Court: Albemarle County Circuit What’s at issue: Whether Almy and her attorneys “willfully, falsely, and maliciously” included a statement in a press release that alleged marital infidelity on the part of the plaintiff. In 1998, Swanson, his wife, and novelist John Grisham […]

Debbie Wyatt goes to Richmond

It was a busy week in Richmond for Charlottesville attorney Debbie Wyatt: She argued three cases before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, including the Monroe vs. City of Charlottesville, the DNA dragnet lawsuit, and Stephens vs. Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, a $16 million lawsuit that arose from the death of Wayne Stephens […]

Hospital disqualified from charitable immunity

On the last day of February, the highest court in the Commonwealth delivered this message to aggrieved UVA hospital patients: Litigate away! The Virginia State Supreme Court rejected a plea by UVA’s Health Services Foundation of charitable immunity, ruling that UVA hospital doctors can be sued for malpractice. With its ruling, the court sent three […]

Fourth Circuit hears Bowers’ case

Dena Bowers’ lawsuit against her former employer, UVA, is now in the hands of the U.S. Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit. On March 19 in Richmond, attorneys involved in the case presented oral arguments to a panel of three judges, who are expected to issue a ruling in two to six months. Dena Bowers, a […]

What’s in your backpack?

Year: Senior Age: 21 Hometown: Rome, GeorgiaMajor: Studio art and English Allison Harbin What’s in your backpack? Makeup, environmental science 101 notes, iPod, proofs from latest photography project about her Southern heritage and race in the South, a bright pink t-shirt with sentimental value, external hard drive, wallet, cell phone, balled up miniature Reese’s Cup […]

Lady Cavs roll in NCAA opener

Playing its first game of the NCAA tournament, the UVA women’s basketball team breezed past the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 86-52 on March 23 and will face Old Dominion on Tuesday night. We may have had to consult a dictionary to figure out what a Gaucho is (for the record, a rebel-rousing South American cowboy), […]

Caught!

By Scott Weaver and Will Goldsmith On a day in 2003, Thomasine Wilson walked into Advance America on Madison Road in Orange with a checkbook from her newly opened account at SunTrust. Wilson had recently moved to Orange from Charlottesville when the rent on her one-bedroom apartment went up $400 a year. She’d found a […]

Q: Why go to a payday lender?

More features: Caught! How Thomasine Wilson got trapped in the payday lending cycle Advance America’s pocketbookThe numbers on America’s biggest payday lender Know the scoreCredit reports 101 Leading the lending fightVirginia Organizing Project has headed the charge against predatory practices You call this reform?Legislation moves interest rates from bad to worse With their triple-figure annual […]

Advance America’s pocketbook

Advance America, which has two Charlottesville branches, is the nation’s largest payday lender, with more than double the stores of its nearest competitors, Check ‘n Go and Check into Cash. The company, based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is also one of the few publicly traded payday lenders, which means that it must produce an annual […]

You call this reform?

More features: Advance America’s pocketbookThe numbers on America’s biggest payday lender Caught!How Thomasine Wilson got trapped in the payday lending cycle Know the scoreCredit reports 101 Leading the lending fightVirginia Organizing Project has headed the charge against predatory practices Q: Why go to a payday lender?A: Because there aren’t better options While $15 for every […]