Virginia’s Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal filed in the name of a party to the trial court case, but filed and signed by a lawyer who said he represented not the party, but a rehab facility that was not named as a party in the case. Lynch v. Bedford Co. DSS (6/11/19, unpublished). Rule 1:4(c) and Virginia Code §8.01-271.13 require all pleadings to be signed by the litigant’s lawyer, or the litigant herself if she does not have a lawyer. The party had named the facility as her “authorized representative” in contesting a denial of Medicaid coverage. Although federal regulations allow that, this “does not supplant or erode the requirement that there must be an attorney-client relationship between the litigant … and counsel appearing and signing pleadings on her behalf,” who must have an ethical duty to the litigant.