Tag: Portsmouth lawyer
Attorneys Michael Goodove, Franklin Swartz and Elizabeth Ufkes have been selected as 2016 Super Lawyers. Michael Goodove was selected as a Super Lawyer in the field of Plaintiff’s Personal Injury. Franklin Swartz was selected as a Super Lawyer in the field of White Collar Criminal Defense. Elizabeth Ufkes was selected as a Super Lawyer as a Rising Star in the field of Plaintiff’s Personal Injury. Only 5% of Virginia attorneys are chosen every year and Goodove, Swartz and Ufkes were selected based upon evaluation by other top lawyers and independent research of the candidates. Goodove, Swartz and Ufkes will be contained in the 2016 Super Lawyers Magazine as well as in the 2016 November/December issue of Hampton Roads magazine.
Michael Goodove was the Keynote Speaker at the 2015 Mid-Atlantic DUI Conference, which took place on May 27 – 29 in Virginia Beach. The Mid-Atlantic DUI Conference is hosted by the Virginia Beach Police Department and is attended by public safety professionals around the country to hone their skills in DUI prevention, detection, and enforcement. Michael Goodove is the President of the Southside Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and is lawyer who specializes in victim’s rights and is community activist in the prevention of DUI’s as well as the enforcement of DUI laws.
Michael Goodove, a partner at Swartz, Taliaferro, Swartz & Goodove, in Norfolk, VA, has been inducted as a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation. Fellows are persons of integrity and character who have maintained and upheld the highest standards in their profession and community. The Fellows are comprised of outstanding lawyers, law professors, and retired members of the judiciary who are nominated by the Fellows Committee and elected by the Virginia Law Foundation Board. Mr. Goodove specializes in personal injury law.
Michael L. Goodove, a partner with the Norfolk law firm of Swartz, Taliaferro, Swartz & Goodove, P.C. was selected by The National Trial Lawyers as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers and has been admitted as a Member to the Medical Malpractice Trial Lawyers. The National Trial Lawyers is a professional organization composed of the premier trial lawyers from across the country who exemplify superior qualifications as civil plaintiff or criminal defense trial lawyers. Mr. Goodove specializes in the areas of personal injury and criminal law.
Michael L. Goodove, a personal injury attorney, with the law firm of Swartz, Taliaferro, Swartz & Goodove, was selected as a member of the 2014 class of the Leaders in the Law. Virginia Lawyers Weekly chose only 30 attorneys in Virginia for this high honor. Goodove was recognized as setting the standard for other lawyers and as a highly accomplished attorney. “Goodove has built a career as a champion of victims of drunk driving, through his trial practice and his longtime leadership in Mothers Against Drunk Driving; as a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer, he finds creative and meaningful remedies for his clients.” Virginia Lawyers Weekly
![BethUfkesPortrait[1]](https://www.stsg-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/BethUfkesPortrait1.jpeg)
Elizabeth Ufkes, an attorney at Swartz, Taliaferro, Swartz & Goodove, in Norfolk, VA, has been selected as “Virginia’s Legal Elite” for 2014 in the category of Lawyer’s Under 40. Virginia’s Legal Elite is an extremely high honor and Ms. Ufkes was selected by her peers for her excellent legal skills and reputation. She will be listed in the December 2014 issue of Virginia Business Magazine. Ms. Ufkes specializes in the areas of personal injury and criminal law.
In a personal injury case stemming from a motor vehicle collision, a recent mediation with a retired Judge resulted in a top offer of $10,000 from State Farm Insurance Company. The case was tried in Virginia Beach Circuit Court for 2 days resulting in a jury verdict in the amount of $150,000. State Farm made a final offer of $20,000 during the first day of trial, but it was rejected and the case was tried to verdict. In addition to paying the full amount of the verdict, Michael Goodove also held State Farm responsible for court costs. State Farm hired a local orthopedic surgeon to testify that our client’s injuries were not accident-related. Goodove established through cross-examination that State Farm’s expert had received excessive compensation and uncovered the expert’s relationship with State Farm and other insurance companies. The trial team consisted of Michael Goodove and Elizabeth Ufkes.
On January 1, 2012, Swartz, Taliaferro, Swartz & Goodove, P.C. relocated to its new law office building in historic downtown Norfolk. The firm continues its practice in the areas of personal injury, criminal and trial law. The new address is 220 West Freemason Street, Norfolk, VA 23510. We are located on the corner of Freemason and Duke Street in historic downtown Norfolk and handle cases all throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. We are located within blocks of both the Norfolk Federal Courthouse and the Norfolk Circuit, General District and Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courts.
Author: MATTHEW ROY AND JON FRANK THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
A man facing his seventh drunken-driving charge after the crash Tuesday that killed a high school student was charged with driving drunk three weeks ago, but regained his freedom within hours by posting a $1,000 bond.
Roy Lee Everett, 30, was charged Tuesday with running a red light, driving under the influence and 10 other violations in the crash that killed 16-year-old Landon Chambers and injured his brother, Barney.
Everett is being held without bail in the Norfolk City Jail.
Everett has been behind bars before. He has three previous DUI convictions in Virginia Beach. And he was arrested for drunken driving most recently on April 14.
That’s when, court records say, Norfolk Officer W.E. Whiteside stopped him for driving recklessly at the wheel of a Jaguar.
Whiteside smelled alcohol.
“I asked if he had been drinking and he stated yes, 4 Mike’s Lemonades in an hour,” Whiteside wrote in papers filed in Norfolk General District Court.
A Department of Motor Vehicles records check showed Everett’s three prior convictions for DUI, Whiteside noted, as well as three previous convictions for driving on a suspended license.
In addition to the third-offense DUI, Whiteside charged Everett with driving after his driving privileges had been suspended.
Magistrate J.D. Bullock Jr. set Everett’s bond at $1,000 at 3:16 a.m. on April 14, according to court records. Everett posted bail through a bonding company at 4:57 a.m. and was freed.
Michael Goodove, an attorney and president of the Southside Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said anyone charged with a third-offense DUI, a felony, should not be allowed to post a bond and be freed from custody.
“Our position is the criminal justice system’s paramount responsibility is to protect lives,” he said. “Research has shown that your hardcore, repetitive drunk-driving offenders are the folks most
likely to injure or kill somebody.”
Three weeks after his release, police contend, Everett drove a pickup through a red light at North Military Highway and Azalea Garden Road into the path of the Chambers brothers, who were traveling in a Honda Civic. The impact crumpled their car and flipped the pickup on its side. Witnesses said Everett climbed from the pickup’s rear window and ran. Citizens cornered him behind a carpet store until police arrived to arrest him.
Bullock could not be reached for comment.
Chief Magistrate Beth B. Pennington said she spoke with him briefly about the bond and intends to meet with him in the coming week.
“At this point, I have to trust the magistrate’s judgment,” she said. “He’s been a magistrate for a while.”
By setting bonds, magistrates try to ensure that defendants show up in court, she said, noting they don’t determine guilt or innocence. She said they consider the length of time a defendant has lived in the area, family ties, any prior record and their likelihood to appear in court.
“No matter how high it’s set, a person can still bond out,” Pennington said.
This week’s DUI charge is the latest in a long list of serious driving infractions for Everett, stretching back to at least 1994.
During the past eight years, Everett has been convicted multiple times for a variety of charges, including reckless driving and speeding.
Everett’s three DUI convictions in Virginia Beach started with a charge in 1994. Five years later, in May 1999, Everett was charged with DUI, second offense.
In December 1999, he was charged again with DUI, second offense.
That last charge resulted in Everett getting the maximum jail penalty for second-offense-DUI – 12 months in jail, according Judge Albert D. Alberi, who sentenced Everett in Virginia Beach General District Court.
But Alberi suspended 11 months of the time and allowed Everett to serve the resulting monthlong sentence on weekends in the Virginia Beach City Jail.
It was not clear on Friday why Everett was not charged that December with DUI, third offense.
DUI, third offense, became a felony when state law was changed by the General Assembly in July 1999. It carries a maximum prison sentence of five years and can be lodged against any drunken driver who has two prior DUI convictions within the past 10 years.
Mark T. Del Duca, a Virginia Beach lawyer and former Beach prosecutor, explained Friday that Everett’s December DUI charge in 1999 may have occurred before his May 1999 offense had made its way through the court system.
If that were the case, it may have been impossible for Everett to be charged with DUI, third offense, in December 1999, Del Duca said.
Everett also was charged with second-offense DUI in Norfolk in January 1998, but the count was dismissed, online court records say.
Another DUI charge, in Emporia in August 1997, was dismissed, according to online court records.
Reach Matthew Roy at mroy(AT)pilotonline.com or 446-2540.
Copyright (c) 2003 The Virginian-Pilot
Record Number: 0305100125