Blogs

Land Use & Zoning

­Changes are Coming to ISD

Changes may be on their way to Arlington County Inspection Services Division, according to Shahriar Amiri. Early this month, Mr. Amiri, director of Inspection Services for Arlington County, addressed NAIOP-Arlington and explained his plans to change the way permits are issued in Arlington County. In the next 6-9 months, a cashier will be added to the 10th floor of the Arlington County building at Courthouse, allowing for more convenient payment for permitting and zoning applications.…

December 5, 2014

Estate Planning

Estate Planning Questions: Naming a Beneficiary to your Accounts

Why not just add a child or loved one to your accounts? We often see instances where an elderly parent has added the name of a child or other loved one to their bank accounts, CDs or brokerage accounts. Normally the elderly individual is looking for a simple way to allow someone else to help manage their finances. When pressed, we often determine that it was not the intent of the older individual that the account would pass to a single individual, but rather that the person would manage the…

December 3, 2014

Estate Planning

Looking for a New Acronym? Try QLAC

What’s a QLAC? Effectively, it is a Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract that’s owned by a traditional IRA or 401K plan. Why is this important and what is a “Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract”? Longevity annuities provide income starting at a future date. As a number of commentators have pointed out, most retirees are not worried about retirement in their early years because they will have assets in their retirement account, but they’re often worried about whether or not their traditional…

December 3, 2014

Estate Planning

Managing Your Online Presence after Death

As we become an increasingly technology-dependent society, so much of what we do is online. Between email, Facebook, photos, music and documents stored online or in the cloud, most of us will have built a considerable online presence when we die. This raises the questions, what should happen to our online assets? How should they be managed? Traditional estate planning addresses tangible personal property, real estate, bank accounts and even intangible personal property such as stock…

December 3, 2014

Intellectual Property

Common Myths about Copyrights and the Internet

Myth: If it’s on the Internet, it’s in the public domain. Mostly False. “Public domain” refers to works which are NOT protected by copyright law. There are only three ways in which something can be considered “public domain”: The work is not subject to copyright protection in the first place . For example, ideas and facts, titles and names, short phrases and slogans, or government works. The work has been assigned to the public domain by its creator . For example, some works may be marked “No…

November 12, 2014

Business and Financial Services

Fraud in Virginia

Fraud cases in Virginia are not only difficult to prove, but can also be challenging to plead. The well-established standard that fraud must be pleaded with particularity diverges from the “notice pleading” test that permits general allegations to suffice in most circumstances. In County of Grayson, et al. v. Ra-Tech Services , two Virginia counties brought a claim against Ra-Tech and its two principals – John Spane and Dale Sutphin – alleging fraud, fraud in the inducement, constructive fraud…

November 12, 2014

Divorce and Family Law

Protective Orders in Virginia

As I am writing this article, it is the day after the first week of NFL football games. The sole topic on the cover of sports websites, discussed on sports radio shows and covered on ESPN and other sports channels is the video in which Ray Rice brutally knocked his fiancé unconscious inside of a Las Vegas casino elevator. While this incident is both graphic and extremely unfortunate, it reminds the greater public what many family law attorneys already know to be true: domestic violence is…

October 8, 2014

Construction

D.C. Office of Planning Takes a Stand Against Pop-Ups With New Zoning Text Amendment

Sustained population growth in the District of Columbia in recent years has spurred a rapid wave of construction throughout the city as upscale condominium projects appear to spring up almost overnight to meet growing demand for housing. But while residential development has been a welcome sign of revitalization in areas from U Street to NoMa,…

September 16, 2014

Employment Law

Data Security in a Technological World

The Uniform Trade Secrets Act, adopted by 47 states including Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, generally defines protectable trade secrets as information that derives independent economic value from not being generally known or readily ascertainable and that is subject to reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy. In an age of electronic information storage…

September 12, 2014

Business and Financial Services

Restrictions in Franchise Agreements Narrowly Construed

Courts continue to interpret restrictive provisions in franchise agreements narrowly, particularly when enforcement depends on precise contractual language such as whether an agreement was “terminated” or simply expired. In this Bean, Kinney & Korman article published in the BKK Business Law Newsletter, James V. Irving explains how that distinction proved decisive in Hamden v. Total Car Franchising Corp., where most post-agreement restrictions were deemed unenforceable because the agreement…

September 2, 2014