Com. v. Dotson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Dotson pled nolo contendere and was placed on first offender status. The trial court was required to find evidence sufficient for a finding of guilt in order to defer the proceedings pursuant to the first offender statute, Code § 18.2-251. Her charge was not dismissed until after she completed court-ordered obligations including the suspension of her operator's license, probation, and payment of court costs. By statute, such obligations could not be imposed absent a finding of evidence sufficient to find her guilty. Thus, Dotson's charge was not "otherwise dismissed" within the meaning of the expungement statute, and Dotson was not entitled to have the charge expunged from her record.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. Com.

2. “[a] person deferred from judgment following a determination that the evidence is sufficient to support a conviction is not `innocent' of the offense regardless of the plea originally entered. " Id. at 530, 604 S.E.2d at 447 (internal quotation marks omitted). Finally, in Commonwealth v. Dotson, 276 Va. 278 , 661 S.E.2d 473 (2008), we considered the question whether a "criminal charge that was dismissed pursuant to a first offender statute . . . can be expunged from a defendant's record”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. Com.

3. “inherent in a trial court['s] placing a defendant on first offender status is a finding by the trial court that there is evidence sufficient to find the defendant guilty.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. Com.