
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 15, 1995                   TAG: 9507170029
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VROOM! VROOM! LAWYERS AT WORK

If the attorneys and paralegals at a Roanoke law office have been spotted playing with a remote-control toy truck during office hours recently, there's a good reason - trial preparation.

The people in Jim Guynn's downtown office have taken to zipping the miniature 4-wheel drive "Avalanche" through office corridors and around desks. Then, when the tiny truck is at full throttle, they ram it head-on into a co-worker's ankle.

So far, no one has been "seriously injured." Nor has anyone suffered "loss of wages, loss in earning capacity ... pain, humiliation, aggravation and disability."

Those were the claims made against a Roanoke toy store that Guynn represents. Janet S. Robinson filed a lawsuit last year against Roanoke Kay-Bee Toys Inc., seeking $100,000 for injuries she suffered when a shopper ran the truck into her ankle at the Valley View Mall store.

When the lawsuit was dropped this week at Robinson's request, the people in Guynn's office were almost disappointed.

"My paralegals are upset because they think the trial is over and the company will want [the truck] back," Guynn said Friday. "We're having fun playing with it; it's a neat toy."

The attorney for Robinson - who in 1990 sued a medical laboratory for "carelessly and negligently inserting a needle" into her arm to draw a blood sample - said the lawsuit could be refiled.

And while the truck may not have hurt anyone in Guynn's office, attorney Jane Harden said, Robinson's ankle was found to be swollen and bruised when she went to a doctor after the incident.

"She does maintain that she was injured," Harden said, "and she continues to have difficulty."

by CNB