Although I have been practicing personal injury law in Southside Virginia for over 30 years, I'm thin-skinned, and it bothers me when I hear "talking heads" or ordinary people attacking lawyers and my profession. For one thing, I know manufacturers think twice before they build a dangerous, defective product because they know a lawyer may be looking over their shoulders. Health care providers are also more careful in treating patients because they understand a lawyer and his client can hold them accountable for their negligence.
Still, it's hard to explain to the public the role a determined lawyer can play in searching out the truth in an important matter. Recently, Virginians had a rare opportunity to see, in dramatic fashion, how this can happen. The newspapers and televisions were full of it, how more than two years after the tragic deaths of 32 Virginia Tech students and professors the mental health records of the killer, Seung-Hui Cho, had finally come to light in the home of Robert Miller, former director of the University's counseling center.
You may recall the public was told these records had disappeared. Ostensibly, the state police had undertaken a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. Allegedly, Tech officials had asked Miller, who left Tech in 2006, whether he knew anything about the files, but he said he had no idea where they were.
Shortly after the massacre, Governor Kaine appointed the Virginia Tech Review Panel to review the events leading up to the massacre. One issue the panel considered was the "life and mental history" of Mr. Cho. In August, 2007, the panel published a final report. In summarizing its key findings, the panel noted that "The Cook Counseling Center and the university's Care Team failed to provide needed support and services to Cho." The panel went on to say the "[r]ecords of Cho's minimal treatment at Virginia Tech's Cook Counseling Center are missing." In other words, during its own investigation, the panel didn't find the mental health records.
In April, 2008, relying on what they thought was a complete and thorough state investigation, most of the injured victims and the families of those who died agreed to accept the state's offer to compensate them for the deaths and injuries. Acceptance of the proposal extinguished their right to pursue the cases further.
So how and why did the mental health records appear over a year later in July, 2009? As the Richmond Times Dispatch put it, "[i]t was the prospect of talking to a lawyer - not the efforts of Virginia police officers investigating the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history - that apparently shook loose [the] missing records about Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho from the former university employee who held them."
You see, although most of the massacre's victims settled their lawsuits with the state, not all of them did. A Northern Virginia lawyer representing one of the victims decided to move forward with litigation in his case. He wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened at Virginia Tech, and the Virginia law and rules of civil trial procedure gave him a way to do it: discovery.
When a civil lawsuit is filed in our state, each party can engage in what we call discovery. It is a procedure designed to uncover all the facts and documents that may be relevant in a lawsuit. Under Virginia's Rules of the Virginia Supreme Court, an attorney for one party can serve on another party a formal Request for Production of Documents. Pursuant to a Virginia statute, the attorney can also subpoena documents from non-parties.
Upon receipt of a Request or a subpoena, the person or entity to which the Request or subpoena is directed must make a thorough search for the documents. This means the individual or company employee must look through all documents which are in his possession or over which he has control to see if any of them are responsive to the lawyer's Request or subpoena. If he finds pertinent documents, he must produce them (with a few exceptions) or face court sanctions.
I don't know what happened with Mr. Miller in the Virginia Tech case, but I can guess at a possible scenario. When asked by state police investigators if he had copies of Mr. Cho's health records, Mr. Miller said,"No" simply because he didn't immediately recall having taken the records home a year or two earlier. The State Police took "No" for a final answer and didn't pursue the matter further.
The plaintiff's lawyer from Northern Virginia didn't stop there, however. Using tools our American civil justice system provides to all litigants, he probably sent Mr. Miller a Request for Documents or a subpoena for Mr. Cho's medical records and then scheduled his deposition. A deposition is another discovery mechanism. It allows a lawyer to question a person under oath in the presence of a court reporter. Because Mr. Miller probably realized the attorney would ask him to describe, one by one, the exact steps he had taken to look for Cho's records, Mr. Miller decided to search for them - and he found them! I think it is fair to say that, but for the persistence of a plaintiff's lawyer from Northern Virginia and his desire to learn the truth about what happened at Virginia Tech, Mr. Cho's mental health records would still be missing today.
The attorneys at Cuthbert Law Offices have the experience and resources to expertly pursue complex wrongful death claims. Contact our Petersburg wrongful death lawyers online today or call us in Petersburg at 804-733-3100, or in Richmond call 804-643-3100.
Still, it's hard to explain to the public the role a determined lawyer can play in searching out the truth in an important matter. Recently, Virginians had a rare opportunity to see, in dramatic fashion, how this can happen. The newspapers and televisions were full of it, how more than two years after the tragic deaths of 32 Virginia Tech students and professors the mental health records of the killer, Seung-Hui Cho, had finally come to light in the home of Robert Miller, former director of the University's counseling center.
You may recall the public was told these records had disappeared. Ostensibly, the state police had undertaken a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. Allegedly, Tech officials had asked Miller, who left Tech in 2006, whether he knew anything about the files, but he said he had no idea where they were.
Shortly after the massacre, Governor Kaine appointed the Virginia Tech Review Panel to review the events leading up to the massacre. One issue the panel considered was the "life and mental history" of Mr. Cho. In August, 2007, the panel published a final report. In summarizing its key findings, the panel noted that "The Cook Counseling Center and the university's Care Team failed to provide needed support and services to Cho." The panel went on to say the "[r]ecords of Cho's minimal treatment at Virginia Tech's Cook Counseling Center are missing." In other words, during its own investigation, the panel didn't find the mental health records.
In April, 2008, relying on what they thought was a complete and thorough state investigation, most of the injured victims and the families of those who died agreed to accept the state's offer to compensate them for the deaths and injuries. Acceptance of the proposal extinguished their right to pursue the cases further.
So how and why did the mental health records appear over a year later in July, 2009? As the Richmond Times Dispatch put it, "[i]t was the prospect of talking to a lawyer - not the efforts of Virginia police officers investigating the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history - that apparently shook loose [the] missing records about Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho from the former university employee who held them."
You see, although most of the massacre's victims settled their lawsuits with the state, not all of them did. A Northern Virginia lawyer representing one of the victims decided to move forward with litigation in his case. He wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened at Virginia Tech, and the Virginia law and rules of civil trial procedure gave him a way to do it: discovery.
When a civil lawsuit is filed in our state, each party can engage in what we call discovery. It is a procedure designed to uncover all the facts and documents that may be relevant in a lawsuit. Under Virginia's Rules of the Virginia Supreme Court, an attorney for one party can serve on another party a formal Request for Production of Documents. Pursuant to a Virginia statute, the attorney can also subpoena documents from non-parties.
Upon receipt of a Request or a subpoena, the person or entity to which the Request or subpoena is directed must make a thorough search for the documents. This means the individual or company employee must look through all documents which are in his possession or over which he has control to see if any of them are responsive to the lawyer's Request or subpoena. If he finds pertinent documents, he must produce them (with a few exceptions) or face court sanctions.
I don't know what happened with Mr. Miller in the Virginia Tech case, but I can guess at a possible scenario. When asked by state police investigators if he had copies of Mr. Cho's health records, Mr. Miller said,"No" simply because he didn't immediately recall having taken the records home a year or two earlier. The State Police took "No" for a final answer and didn't pursue the matter further.
The plaintiff's lawyer from Northern Virginia didn't stop there, however. Using tools our American civil justice system provides to all litigants, he probably sent Mr. Miller a Request for Documents or a subpoena for Mr. Cho's medical records and then scheduled his deposition. A deposition is another discovery mechanism. It allows a lawyer to question a person under oath in the presence of a court reporter. Because Mr. Miller probably realized the attorney would ask him to describe, one by one, the exact steps he had taken to look for Cho's records, Mr. Miller decided to search for them - and he found them! I think it is fair to say that, but for the persistence of a plaintiff's lawyer from Northern Virginia and his desire to learn the truth about what happened at Virginia Tech, Mr. Cho's mental health records would still be missing today.
The attorneys at Cuthbert Law Offices have the experience and resources to expertly pursue complex wrongful death claims. Contact our Petersburg wrongful death lawyers online today or call us in Petersburg at 804-733-3100, or in Richmond call 804-643-3100.
Labels: firm news, wrongful death