Munro Byrd PC

03/26/2026

Defamation Case Dismissed: Munro Byrd Secures Defense Win

In addition to helping injured people in personal injury, car accident, and medical malpractice matters throughout the Roanoke Valley and Virginia, Munro Byrd represents clients in defamation cases on both sides of the “v.”—bringing actions to vindicate reputations unreasonably defamed, and defending those accused of defamation.

In a recent defense engagement, we obtained dismissal of a defamation lawsuit filed against our client.

Strategic Demurrer Practice

After evaluating the complaint, we identified several pleading and substantive deficiencies that we could argue as legal and factual defenses: the statements at issue were true; the alleged defamatory words were not pled in haec verba (verbatim); as required under Virginia practice; and that certain requested relief—such as fees and costs—was not recoverable.

We filed responsive pleadings, including a “demurrer” (a motion to dismiss the lawsuit) asserting failure to state a sufficient legal claim under Virginia law.

At the hearing, the Court agreed, found the complaint defective, and sustained the demurrer, ultimately dismissing the case—resulting in a complete victory for our client.

Our Defamation Practice

Munro Byrd regularly handles defamation matters in Roanoke City and surrounding jurisdictions for both plaintiffs and defendants.

If you believe you have been defamed, or if you are facing a defamation claim, contact us for a case evaluation.

Jurisdictions Served

We litigate throughout Virginia, including Roanoke City and County, Montgomery County (Christiansburg, Blacksburg), Lynchburg, Abingdon, Martinsville, Rocky Mount, Wytheville, Bedford, Covington, Harrisonburg, Richmond, Charlottesville, Lexington, and Staunton, as well as in rural localities such as Bath, Campbell, Giles, Craig, Smyth, Alleghany, Pulaski, Franklin, Campbell, Carroll, Patrick, Floyd, Stuart, Pittsylvania, Henry, and Wythe Counties.

We also appear in Virginia federal courts, including divisions in Roanoke, Abingdon, Danville, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Alexandria, and Richmond.

Results depend on a variety of factors unique to each case, and we cannot guarantee similar outcomes.

02/01/2026

A Quick Summary of Premises Liability Claims and Duties Owed by Property Owners

In addition to car, trucking, defective product, and medical malpractice matters, the personal injury lawyers at Munro Byrd regularly handle premises liability cases. These cases typically arise when someone is an “invitee” to a property owned by another person or a business—such as a store, a parking lot, or a home—due to a dangerous condition on the property.

What Is Premises Liability?

When people think of “premises liability,” they often think of fall injuries at grocery stores or restaurants—and that’s many of these cases arise. At its core, a premises liability claim involves someone injured because of a dangerous condition on the “premises,” such as slipping on a slick substance, the failure of a railing or stair, or other hazard that the owner or business should have fixed or prevented.

The Injured Person’s Legal Status Matters

What “duty” the property owner had to prevent harm to the injured person depends upon the reason that person was on the owner’s premises. Virginia divides this legal status into an invitee, licensee, or trespasser. The duties of care increase from the lowest owed to a trespasser (someone with no permission to be where they are injured); to licensees (someone who enters a property for his own convenience or benefit with the knowledge and consent of the owner or occupier, such as a social guest); to the highest duty, owed to invitees. An invitee enters with the express or implied invitation of the owner or occupier of a property, typically for the landowner’s benefit. The most common examples are a prospective customer visiting a business property or someone there to provide the owner a requested service.

Duties Owed to Invitees

An invitee is entitled to assume the premises are reasonably safe for the intended visit. Thus, a business or property owner owes invitees a duty to use ordinary care to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition, consistent with the invitation. The landowner must also warn an invitee of unsafe conditions the owner knows about or should know about through ordinary care, particularly if they are not so open and obvious that an invitee would be expected to see or anticipate them. The duty can also include a duty to make reasonable inspections to discover potential hazards.

How Slip-and-Fall Claims Work

In a typical slip-and-fall, the store’s obligations are straightforward: it must use ordinary care to prevent, discover and remove liquids or other fall hazards from the floor. If the store’s personnel cause a spill, or become aware of any spill, they must promptly take action to remove it and warn customers away from the hazard in the meanwhile. A business can be liable if it had actual knowledge of the spill and a customer is injured before it is removed. Or, if there is evidence that the store failed to discover the spill, and the hazard was present long enough that the store should have discovered it before the injury, the store may still be liable for breaching its reasonable duties to inspect. This is known as “constructive knowledge.”

Liability Requires Proof of Negligence Causing an Injury

Premises liability is not “strict liability.” An injured person cannot recover simply because they were hurt. They must show the owner or possessor of the property was negligent. This requires the injured person to prove the owner failed to keep the premises reasonably safe, breached a duty of reasonable inspection, or unreasonably failed to warn them about a hazardous condition.

Property owners often defend these claims with arguments that excuse themselves or blame the injured person for contributory negligence. For instance, the owner may argue they had no notice or knowledge of a hazard, that the customer caused the fall by failing to be careful, or that the condition was so “open and obvious” that a reasonable person would have noticed it. Usually, these are issues of fact that a judge or jury resolves in a trial, but occasionally, a hazard is indeed so obvious that it can result in the dismissal of a case without a trial.

Why Injured People Must Quickly Contact an Attorney

If you have been injured in a fall incident, it is critical to contact a lawyer immediately after an injury so counsel can quickly preserve evidence, identify and contact witnesses, and make prompt contact with the business and its insurer. For instance, frequently there is video evidence, but it may be stored for a limited time.

How We Can Help

If you have fallen and been hurt at someone else's property due to their negligence, we are here to help explain your options. Our personal injury lawyers regularly handle premises liability cases across Virginia. Our law firm has extensive experience in handling premises liability cases, and other types of personal injury cases throughout Virginia, including in Roanoke City and County, Montgomery County (Christiansburg, Blacksburg), Lynchburg, Abingdon, Martinsville, Rocky Mount, Wytheville, Bedford, Covington, Harrisonburg, Richmond, Charlottesville, Lexington, or Staunton. We also practice in areas such as Bath County, Campbell County, Giles County, Craig County, Smyth County, Alleghany County, Pulaski County, Franklin County, Campbell County, Carroll County, Patrick County, Floyd County, Stuart County, Pittsylvania County, Henry County, and Wythe County. We also litigate in Virginia federal courts, including those divisions in Roanoke, Abingdon, Danville, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Alexandria, and Richmond.

Call us for a free, confidential consultation to evaluate your case and explain your options.

12/04/2025

Fighting Noncompete Agreements in Virginia: How Can Employees Challenge Enforceability in Virginia State Courts?

Overview of Noncompete Agreements and Their Purpose

Noncompetition agreements are contracts in which an employee agrees not to engage in certain competitive activities after leaving an employer. Employers are supposed to use them to protect legitimate business interests, such as unfair competition, trade secrets, confidential information, client relationships, and the goodwill the employer has developed. In reality, however, employers often use them to shackle employees from leaving to improve their livelihoods and as weapons to stifle free market competition.

Fortunately for workers, in Virginia courts, noncompetes are generally disfavored as restraints on trade but may be enforced if they are narrowly tailored to protect legitimate interests without unduly burdening the employee or harming the public.

Key Elements of Enforceability in Virginia

Virginia courts evaluate whether noncompetes are legal with a fact-intensive, case-by-case, three-part reasonableness test focused on scope and balance.

To be enforceable, a noncompete must be: 1. Narrowly drawn to protect the employer’s legitimate business interests; 2. Not unduly burdensome on the employee’s ability to earn a living; and 3. Not contrary to public policy. Crucially, the employer (not the employee) bears the burden of proving enforceability of the contract and justifying the enforcement against a particular employee.

When looking at these factors, courts look at the scope of what an employee is restricted from doing and whether it is “overbroad.” Restrictions typically have three components: a) Function (the specific activities/services the employee is barred from performing); b) Geographic scope (the territories or areas where an employee or work is restricted); c) Duration (the time period of the restriction after separation).

If the restrictions are supported by adequate consideration (money or value), limited to legitimate business interests (such as confidential information, actual competition with the prior employer, an employee’s prior job duties, customer contacts, or specialized training), and drafted with clear, limited scope, they are more likely to be upheld. Overbroad restraints that prohibit ordinary competition, restrict work unrelated to the employee’s prior role, or exceed the employer’s actual market footprint are less likely to survive.

Importantly, most noncompetes have a term that says that if a court finds a restriction overbroad, it can be re-written rather than struck. However, Virginia courts generally refuse to “blue pencil” or rewrite overbroad noncompetes. If a restriction is facially unreasonable, courts typically refuse to enforce it.

Common Reasons for Successful Challenges of Noncompetes in Virginia Courts

Some of the common reasons that Virginia employees can successfully challenge noncompetes are on grounds such as:

1. The functional scope is overbroad (e.g., prohibiting any role in an industry or new company, regardless of similarity to the former job).
2. The geographic scope exceeds the employer’s actual market or the area where the employee worked previously in a defined territory of customer contacts.
3. The duration is longer than necessary to protect legitimate interests.
4. The employer lacks a protectable interest (e.g., no access to trade secrets or confidential information, or the information is publicly available).
5. The agreement is vague or ambiguous, making it impossible to determine what conduct is prohibited. Or, if an ambiguity is interpreted broadly, it would be an unreasonable or irrational restriction.
6. The restraint unduly impairs the employee’s ability to earn a living in their field.
7. The agreement violates public policy (including statutory constraints, such as Virginia’s ban on noncompetes for certain low-wage employees).

Practical Advice for Employees Considering a Challenge

• Do not assume enforceability or unenforceability; have the agreement evaluated promptly by counsel, ideally before taking a new, competitive position.
• Avoid using or taking any employer confidential information especially “trade secrets.” Scrupulous conduct strengthens your position. (Walk out “naked” from your prior job, as some lawyers like to say).
• Be transparent with prospective employers about a noncompete; share the agreement so they can structure new duties to minimize risk of violation of a legitimate noncompete (and if possible, get them to agree to evaluate it for you).
• If practicable, propose to a prior employer targeted carve-outs (for example, limiting to specific clients you serviced or to a defined product line) to resolve disputes without litigation.

If you have a noncompete, are wondering if you can fight it or resolve something with your former employer, feel free to contact us for a consultation!

10/03/2025

WHAT IS A DEPOSITION AND HOW DO I MAKE SURE MINE IS USEFUL FOR MY CASE?

See this and other articles on our website here: https://www.trialsva.com/what-is-a-deposition-and-how-do-i-do-it/

Personal injury cases have many stages including pre-suit investigation, discovery and trial. Once a case is filed in court, a critical part of discovery includes the depositions of the parties, including the plaintiff (the injured claimant). A deposition is the first time the plaintiff gets to personally tell his or her story to opposing counsel and, in many cases, the defendant who caused the injury. Many injured people are nervous or emotional before their deposition, which is understandable. Often, the injury has changed your life in serious ways. We put major pressure on ourselves to tell the whole story, to make the other side understand how the injury has changed everything. The deposition itself is often a strange and unfamiliar process. Most people have never testified before. That lack of familiarity—and control over the questions being asked of us--naturally worries anyone who has to testify. Knowing what to expect during a deposition, the real purpose of a deposition in personal injury cases, and the expectations of us as a witness can help us relax and communicate effectively.

A deposition is a process where an attorney asks a witness questions, and the witness answers them under oath to tell the truth. The people who attend depositions usually include lawyers for both sides, including the plaintiff’s attorney, the witness, and a court reporter. Both the plaintiff and the defendant have the right to be present, even if they are not themselves the witness. The court reporter will take down every word that is said including all questions asked, all answers given and any objections made or other discussions “on the record.” Most personal injury cases are audio-recorded, and some are videoed.

Depositions are taken for several reasons. The most important is that a deposition is “discovery,” meaning the lawyers get information about what the witness would say in a trial. Lawyers don’t like surprises, so they use depositions to prepare for trial. Defense lawyers also summarize the information for their insurance companies about the value of the case, and the strengths and weaknesses of the case if a jury or judge later hears the same facts. So, their main goals are to learn what a witness knows or remembers and what kind of witness a personal injury claimant will make at trial. They also use depositions to explore a personal injury claimant’s medical history, in order to see what injuries and damages are from the crash or may have been a problem before the crash.

When one of our personal injury clients is deposed, we make sure our client knows the ground rules to be followed that make the deposition process less intimidating. The first rule is that the witness should listen carefully to the question and then always tell the truth when answering those questions. If a personal injury claimant fails to be truthful, or is evasive, that can have bad consequences for the case. The second rule is to only answer the question asked, and only if you understand it. If you don’t understand a question, a witness should ask the attorney to rephrase it or clarify it. Another key rule is that a personal injury witness should only answer the question that is asked. A witness should not go beyond the question that has been asked. For example, if a witness is asked if he or she has any brothers or sisters, the correct answer is either yes or no. Unless asked further questions, the witness should not go into information about his or her siblings like names, addresses, and the like unless asked to do so. Rambling about other information delays the process and makes the deposition longer. It also can seem evasive. It is the obligation of the attorney to ask the questions necessary to get information from the personal injury witness. There is no obligation to volunteer information beyond the scope of the question, even information that the witness really wants to talk about instead.

Even though injured people often resent probing or irrelevant questions, they should be straightforward and not sarcastic. People often want to try and push back against an adversary, but the best option is always to be straightforward about the facts. Sarcasm does not translate well to a transcription, and can be misleading when reviewed months later. It also tends to make a deposition take more time, not less, because the lawyer is going to persist in getting straight information even if they have to ask the same questions again.

An injured witness should not feel pressure to try and “win” their case in their deposition. Winning the case is the lawyer’s job. The witness’ job is to truthfully answer the questions asked, and let the evidence be what it is.

In addition to the evidence, impressions during a deposition matter for a case, not unlike a job interview. So, while it may seem like a small thing, a personal injury witness should dress appropriately and be respectful. While a deposition is not a court hearing or a trial, it is a formal proceeding. A personal injury claimant should dress professionally, because that is part of making a strong impression. Coming to the deposition dressed too casually implies that the personal injury victim does not care about their own lawsuit.

While a deposition can be a stressful process for a personal injury victim, understanding what to expect and what the rules are will make it easier. Further, once a few questions have been asked and answered, the deposition becomes a great deal simpler and less stressful.

If you have been injured in a car wreck, trucking accident, or as a result of a fall at a business, we are here to help. Call us for a free consultation on your claim.

Our firm regularly litigates personal injury cases throughout Virginia, including in Roanoke City and County, Montgomery County (Christiansburg, Blacksburg), Lynchburg, Abingdon, Martinsville, Rocky Mount, Wytheville, Bedford, Covington, Harrisonburg, Richmond, Charlottesville, Lexington, or Staunton. We also practice in areas such as Bath County, Campbell County, Giles County, Craig County, Smyth County, Alleghany County, Pulaski County, Franklin County, Campbell County, Carroll County, Patrick County, Floyd County, Stuart County, Pittsylvania County, Henry County, and Wythe County. We also litigate in Virginia federal courts, including those divisions in Roanoke, Abingdon, Danville, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Alexandria, and Richmond.

You can bring a claim for underinsured motorist coverage for injuries by a hit-and-run crash unknown driver

09/23/2025

What is Mediation and should I try it for my injury case or other litigation dispute?

Note: For this and more articles, visit our site at https://www.trialsva.com/trials-va-blog/

Personal injury cases can resolve before a trial in several different ways. Sometimes—often before filing a lawsuit—lawyers will negotiate directly with an insurance adjuster. When this fails to generate a fair settlement amount, we typically begin litigation (filing a lawsuit), develop the evidence through discovery, and schedule a trial date. As that trial gets closer, the defense often suggests a mediation.

What is mediation? It’s a non-binding settlement conference. Mediation is a process whereby the parties and their lawyers work with a mediator to try and resolve the case. By this point, both sides typically know what the trial evidence will be, and based on experience, can anticipate the range of potential outcomes if a judge or jury decides the case for you.

The mediator is usually a retired judge, but sometimes practicing or retired lawyers serve as the mediator. Most of the time, they charge an hourly rate for which the parties split the cost, though some free options do exist. The mediation begins with a joint session where each side may summarize their case (usually done in an advance memo to the mediator). After that, the parties attending the mediation split into separate rooms while the mediator goes back-and-forth, exchanging offers and demands along with other information the parties wish to share or argue. Mediators serve as neutral facilitators. Their job is to persuade each party to move closer. They generally try to avoid forcing the moves.

Instead of strong-arm tactics, the mediator typically tries to get each side to think about the strengths and weaknesses of their case, from a judge’s or jury’s point of view, in hopes that each party will move further towards a common number. The injured person doesn’t want to lose more money; the defendant (or insurance company) doesn’t want to pay more. As leverage, the best mediators know how to get each party to consider risks that they may not be thinking about. The biggest advantage is that each party gets to decide what to do, and so the outcome is voluntary. If it works, the case is over and the prompt resolution of the dispute is guaranteed.

There are other advantages to mediating a case. These include saving on the costs associated with taking a case all the way to trial. While mediators are often paid for their time spent on a case, mediator fees are significantly less expensive than the costs of a trial. Mediations are also less time-consuming than jury trials, which often last for several days. In addition, a mediation gives the parties control over the outcome that isn’t present when a case goes to trial and strangers make the final call. Almost always, people prefer this because it avoids the uncertain risk of waiting on a verdict, and the possibility of appeals by the losing side that can stretch a case out for a long time. When you’ve been injured, and you’re coping with lost money, time, and energy, the time value of a payment delivered now certainly matters.

One other advantage to mediation—even when the case does not settle at all—is that it allows both sides to have a full and frank but confidential discussion of the case without fear that such discussion will later be evidence at trial. Virginia law encourages mediation by making most communications made at or in connection with the mediation confidential. See Va. Code § 8.01-581.22. There are some limited exceptions to this which rarely come up, but good lawyers are careful to control. And, in practice, most cases do resolve at a mediation, and both parties can walk away knowing they found enough common ground to resolve a case.

The trial lawyers at Munro Byrd have extensive experience with mediation. Our lawyers have participated in several mediations involving personal injury, car accident, trucking accident, medical malpractice and wrongful death cases. We also have resolved numerous commercial contract or business disputes between parties who believed they couldn't agree on anything! We have resolved many cases for clients with mediation, and do our very best to put our clients in the strongest position to extract the money they need and deserve.

If you have a personal injury claim or any dispute you need to resolve, please call us to evaluate your options. We are here to help guide you through the process.

We cannot promise similar results in all cases. We litigate such cases throughout Virginia, including in Roanoke City and County, Montgomery County (Christiansburg, Blacksburg), Lynchburg, Abingdon, Martinsville, Rocky Mount, Wytheville, Bedford, Covington, Harrisonburg, Richmond, Charlottesville, Lexington, or Staunton. We practice in rural areas like Bath County, Campbell County, Giles County, Craig County, Smyth County, Alleghany County, Pulaski County, Franklin County, Campbell County, Carroll County, Patrick County, Floyd County, Stuart County, Pittsylvania County, Henry County, and Wythe County. We also litigate in Virginia federal courts, including those divisions in Roanoke, Abingdon, Danville, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Alexandria, and Richmond.

What is Mediation and should I try it for my injury case or other litigation dispute? Automobile accidents, Business Litigation, Insurance Coverage, Personal Injury, UncategorizedPersonal injury cases can resolve before a trial in several different ways. Sometimes—often before filing a lawsuit—l...

09/15/2025

Want to settle your case for the highest value? Hire a trial lawyer with experience trying cases and winning them!

One question every personal injury client asks us in the beginning—and often later in the representation—is whether and when we think their case will settle. Even though they have hired competent “trial attorneys,” many injured people think that cases never go to court and will never get tried, or they want to avoid that process. While most well-developed cases do settle prior to trial, not every case does, and some take more investment than others of time and money to drive a good settlement amount. In fact, if you are injured and are hoping your case will resolve early by settlement, your best strategy is to start by hiring a personal injury lawyer who is both willing to try your personal injury case, and who has a strong track record of excellent verdicts.

There are several reasons that cases do not settle right away, or at all. Some of them have to do with insurance adjusters not fairly evaluating a case and generally being unreasonable, or working for companies that limit their evaluations of a claim’s value in arbitrary ways. Adjusters will often say things like, “Those medical bills were too high for the treatment your client received” or “Your client’s doctor shouldn’t have prescribed so much therapy.” We hear insurance adjusters make this absurd argument all the time. Our response? Fine, let’s go to trial and see what a judge or jury thinks. Because we try these cases in Virginia courts—and adjusters do not—we can explain that no defense lawyer is going to convince a jury to blame our client for how much a doctor has charged him. If that’s what the bills cost in this market, then a jury is going to award the full amount as long as they believe the treatment was for the injuries at issue. When they are seeking medical care, particularly in a traumatic emergency, patients have no choice how much a provider charges. Juries know this, and they don’t sympathize with the insurance company’s shareholders who want to lower costs. While no one likes how large the bills are, a negligent defendant is legally responsible for paying all those expenses, provided they are reasonable and customary generally.

Adjusters will also try to dispute the extent of a person’s injuries, or argue that the injuries aren’t related to the negligent event (such as a fall or car wreck). When we encounter such unreasonable adjusters, we prepare to file suit and typically do so. Sometimes it takes a judge or a jury to show an adjuster what a fair case value is. Sometimes the defense lawyer who responds to the case instantly has a more reasonable estimate of case value, and will work with us to get the insurance company to pay it. Regardless, what brings credibility in these cases is a reputation for hard work and persuasion that come from trying cases—especially the hard ones.

Another reason cases don’t settle is because there is a “liability” dispute, meaning a disagreement about what happened in an injurious event such as car wreck and who was responsible. Some adjusters don’t evaluate a claim fully, and rely on their own insured’s self-serving statement that it wasn’t their fault or that someone else is to blame, and even disregard the findings in a crash report prepared by the officer. Instead of doing a full investigation into the circumstances of a claim, the adjuster just assumes (often wrongly) that a plaintiff won’t be able to prove the defendant was at-fault. A trial lawyer can lay out the evidence for the adjuster, but unless the insurance company knows you are willing to try hard cases, they won’t believe that is your intention and start to budge.

Of course, some cases have to be tried. There are times that an insurance company is too negative or stubborn, each side has such a differing view of the case that the only way to resolve it is in court. When you are facing that challenge, you may feel intimidated. Most people have never had to testify in a courtroom, or place very significant outcomes in their lives into the hands of seven strangers on a jury. In that situation, you need a lawyer who is comfortable in a courtroom, can answer all your questions, can help calm your nerves by removing the uncertainty, and then be willing to go try the best case possible.

So, if you find yourself seeking an attorney to handle your personal injury case, make sure you talk to various lawyers and find the ones you trust the most. Make sure that the lawyer you hire has experience trying cases and winning jury verdicts, and isn’t scared of a courtroom. While your case may settle, your goal is to get the most money possible. And that may mean going to trial.

At Munro Byrd, we enjoy trying personal injury cases, and we frequently do. But we always put our client’s wishes first, no matter the result. We try cases before juries and judges throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. We are here to help you with your case, and that begins by answering questions!