Professor Peter Swisher teaches and writes in the areas of family law, torts, and insurance law. He has authored or co-authored over a dozen casebooks and treatises, and over two dozen articles and book chapters, on these subjects. Professor Swisher has held a number of positions with the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), including chair of its insurance law section and chair of its family and juvenile law section. He has also served as editor of the AALS Family Law Section Newsletter, editor of the Virginia State Bar’s Family Law News, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Family Law Section of the Virginia State Bar. Professor Swisher has been an expert witness in over a dozen insurance law cases, and since 1992, has served as a lecturer to Virginia judges on domestic relations law. Professor Swisher received the University of Richmond’s Distinguished Educator Award in 1994 and again in 2002. In 2009, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Virginia State Bar’s Family Law Section.
Lecturer at the Judicial Institute Pre-Bench Orientation Program, Charlottesville, Va. in Domestic Relations Law (1992-present)
Expert Witness in Insurance Cases (selected)
Stellute v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Ins. Co. (E.D. VA. 1999)
Expert witness for defendant insurance company in a homeowner/workers compensation insurance coverage dispute. Case dismissed in favor of insurer.
Brown v. Security Conn. Life Ins. Co. (W.D. VA. 2001)
Expert witness for plaintiff insured in a conditional receipt life insurance coverage dispute. Case settled prior to trial in favor of insured.
SR Int'l Bus. Co. v. World Trade Center Properties (S.D.N.Y 2002)
Expert witness (deposed) for St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co., one of 22 insurance companies involved in the World Trade Center property insurance coverage dispute. Summary judgment awarded to St. Paul. (See: World Trade Center Properties v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., 345 F.3d 154 (2d Cir. 2003).
Pishky v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Ins. Co. (E.D. VA 2003)
Expert witness for defendant insurance company in a homeowners property insurance coverage dispute. Case settled prior to trial for nominal damages.
Martirosov v. Shenandoah Flight Services Inc. (Cir. Ct. Rockingham Co., VA 2004)
Expert witness for plaintiff insured in a wrongful death aviation insurance lawsuit. Summary judgment awarded to plaintiff insured.
Lee v. American Memorial Life Ins. Co. (Cir. Ct. Jefferson Co., KY 2005)
Expert witness for defendant insurer in pre-need funeral insurance case involving bad-faith coverage issues. This case went to trial and was settled prior to insurer's motion for a directed verdict and prior to a jury verdict.
Cantu v. Household Life Ins. Co. (Dist. Ct., AZ. 2005), Expert witness for defendant insurer in a group life credit insurance coverage dispute with bad faith allegations. This case was settled prior to trial.
Hanby v. Hanania (Cir. Ct., Montgomery County, MD. 2007), Expert witness for law firm in a legal malpractice/property insurance coverage dispute. Summary judgment awarded to law firm.
Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. v. Aon Corp ( Cir. Ct., City of Chesapeake, VA 2007) Expert witness for broker Aon in a worker's compensation coverage dispute. Summary judgment was awarded to Aon.
Molina v. Household Life Ins. Co., (Superior Ct., Pima Co. AZ 2009) Expert witness for defendant insurer in a group life credit insurance coverage dispute with bad faith allegations. I was deposed in this case and testified at trial. Jury verdict was for the defendant insurer.
Lambert Leasing v. QBE Insurance Co. (Australia Ltd.) et al. (Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia, 2012)
Expert witness for plaintiff insured in a wrongful death aviation insurance lawsuit.
Insurance Law and Tort Law
Principles of Insurance Law (LexisNexis 4th ed. 2011) (with Jeffrey Stempel and Erik Knutsen).
Virginia Practice Series: Tort and Personal Injury Law (West 2011 revised ed.) (with Robert Draim and David Hudgins).
Co-Author, Principles Of Insurance Law, Third Revised Edition (Lexis/Nexis 2006)
Family Law/Domestic Relations
Understanding Family Law (LexisNexis 4th ed., forthcoming 2012) (with John DeWitt Gregory and Robin Wilson).
Family Law: Cases, Materials, and Problems (LexisNexis 3d ed. 2012)
Virginia Practice Series: Family Law: Theory, Practice, and Forms (West 2011 revised ed.) (with Lawrence Diehl and James Cottrell).
Co-Author, Virginia Practice: Family Law (Thomson-West, 2004-present)
Co-Author, Virginia Family Law: Theory And Practice, Third Edition (Harrison Company, 2002)
Co-Author, Virginia Family Law: Theory And Practice, Second Edition (Harrison Company, 1997)
Co-Author, Understanding Family Law (Matthew Bender, 1993)
Co-Author, Virginia Family Law: Theory And Practice (Harrison Company, 1991)
Insurance Law and Tort Law
Liability Insurance Coverage for Clergy Sexual Abuse Claims, 17 Conn. Ins. L.J. 355 (2011) (with Richard Mason).
Family Law/Domestic Relations
Marriage and Some Troubling Issues With No-Fault Divorce, 17 Regent U. L. Rev. 243 (2005) (symposium issue)
Reassessing Fault Factors In No-Fault Divorce, 31 Fam. L. Q. 269 (1997)
Foreign Migratory Divorces: A Reappraisal, 21 J. Fam. L. 9 (1982)
Co-Author,Family Law: Cases, Materials, And Problems (Matthew Bender, 1990)
Virginia Should Abolish the Archaic Tort Defense of Contributory Negligence and Adopt a Comparative Negligence Defense in its Place, 46 U. Rich. L. Rev. 359 (2011).
Proposed Legislation: A (Second) Modest Proposal to Protect Virginia Consumers Against Defective Products, 43 U. Rich. L. Rev. 19 (2008)
Proving the Validity of Marriage, 43 Va Lawyer 29 (December, 1994)
Legal Writing
Techniques of Legal Drafting: A Survival Manual, 15 U. Rich. L. Rev. 873 (1981), reprinted in 31 Law Review Digest 4 (1982)
Teaching Legal Reasoning in Law School, 74 L. Lib. J. 534 (1981)
Insurance Law
Tort Law