Publisher's Notebook

At this newspaper, we’re always looking for more information to present to you, and for better ways to present it.

The opinion digests that we publish each week give you a heads-up on the latest cases decided by Virginia’s state and federal judges.

We’ve got a new way for you to stay up to date.

On our home page, you’ll find a new section entitled, “The Latest Opinions.” Here, you’ll find the most current opinion digests, presented on our site as soon as we receive them and get them digested. They are published first on the website, then we compile the full week’s complement and publish them in the printed newspaper that should arrive in Monday morning’s mail.

On the website, the digests are fed to the home page and appear in six different categories:
• Business Law
• Criminal Law
• Employment Law
• Family Law
• Personal Injury
• Real Estate

These six categories cover a substantial number of the subject headings we’ve used for years, and the groupings are logical and easy to follow. For example, under “Employment Law,” you’ll find cases on employment, employment discrimination and workers’ comp. “Personal Injury Law” covers negligence, tort law, products liability and insurance, among others.

You’ll find the latest digests for cases involving the few subject areas that don’t fit into these six categories in the opinion archives. Just use those words (i.e., “Administrative” or “Municipal”) as search terms in the search box on the home page.

Here’s one more way to remember to take a quick look at the latest opinions: Follow the link on the Daily Alert.

Each morning’s Alert features a significant case or two, along with a link to its digest. At the bottom of the Alert, there is a statement, “See more of the Latest Opinions.” Click on that and you’ll go right to “The Latest Opinions” on the bottom of the home page. That way, you can check if there is a new case that impacts your clients or the files you’re working on.

Here’s hoping that this new, faster way to get the latest law into your hands proves helpful to you. As always, we’d welcome any suggestions for improving our site and our services.

A guy in suburban Chicago was fired from his job yesterday…for wearing a Green Bay Packers tie to work.

The Chicago Tribune reports that John Stone (right), a car salesman in Oak Lawn, Ill., showed up to work Monday wearing a Packers tie, a nod to Green Bay’s trip to the Super Bowl and, he said, a way to honor his recently deceased grandmother, a big Packers fan.

His boss wasn’t amused and told him to take it off or he was fired. Stone thought he was joking. An hour later, the boss caught him still wearing the tie, and dismissed him on the spot.

Apparently, the Chevrolet dealership had done some promotions for the Chicago Bears, whom the Packers beat for the trip to play the Pittsburgh Steelers. The boss didn’t like the apparent mixed message. And he said he didn’t know there was any emotional connection for Stone.

Stone disobeyed a direct order from his boss, but how’s that going to play out on his future job apps? Stone will come out looking better.

Q. “Please state reason for leaving last position.”

A. “Fired for wearing Green Bay Packers tie to work.”

Perhaps he should look for work across the border in Wisconsin. There, going down for a Packers tie would be viewed a badge of honor.

Update: There is a happy ending to this story. After word of Stone’s sacking got out, USA Today reported that a rival Chevrolet dealer in Homewood, another Chicago suburb, offered Stone a job, saying “good salesmen are hard to find” and that it was “idiotic” to terminate someone for just wearing a tie you don’t like. The fact that the hiring could generate good-guy publicity points for the Homewood dealership probably didn’t even enter his mind. No, not at all.

(AP photo/Chicago Sun-Times, Jean Lachat)

The Virginia Law Foundation held its annual induction dinner in Williamsburg last night. Induction as a Fellow is a special honor conferred by the VLF Board on selected Virginia attorneys, law professors, and retired members of the judiciary who are deemed to be outstanding in their profession and in their community. The 21 new Fellows are:

Thomas L. Appler, Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP, McLean
Edward D. Barnes, Barnes & Diehl PC, Chesterfield
James P. Cox, III, MichieHamlett, Charlottesville
Roy V. Creasy, sole practitioner, Roanoke
John D. Epps, Hunton & Williams, Richmond
Cheshire I’Anson Eveleigh, Wolcott Rivers Gates, Virginia Beach
Lelia B. Hopper, Court Improvement Program, OES, Supreme Court of Virginia, Richmond
Jon D. Huddleston, Sevila Saunders Huddleston & White, Leesburg
David W. Lannetti, Vandeventer Black LLP, Norfolk
R. Peyton Mahaffey, McCandlish & Lillard, Fairfax
Brian R. Marron, Spotts Fain PC, Richmond
Charles V. McPhillips, Kaufman & Canoles, Norfolk
Monica Taylor Monday, Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore LLP, Roanoke
Clinton S. Morse, LeClair Ryan, Roanoke
Matthew B. Murray, Allen Allen Allen & Allen, Charlottesville
Stephen D. Rosenthal, Troutman Sanders LLP, Richmond
William L. Schmidt, William L. Schmidt & Associates PC, Fairfax
E. Ford Stephens, Christian & Barton LLP, Richmond
Ann K. Sullivan, Crenshaw Ware & Martin PLC, Norfolk
Edward L. Weiner, Weiner Rohrstaff & Spivey PLC, Fairfax
Carolyn A. White, White & McCarthy, Richmond

The question was pretty stark and pretty direct, but there it was on the Daily Press website:

Was Your Wife a Criminal?

Gee, I didn’t run a background check before we got married.

The provocative query sounds like the title of a 1950s film noir. Or maybe it brings to mind the plot from a bad TV show, in which the hero gets a really big surprise. The line comes from an ad for one of those online criminal records sites.

I have to wonder how many people are going to use this service to look up a spouse…is non-disclosed past criminal activity really a problem in this country?

Here’s some comfort for anyone who meets their mate in law school: The character and fitness people at the bar examiners’ office will out anyone with a shady past, so you can rest easy.

The 2011 General Assembly, which convenes Wednesday, will be seeking to elect a new justice to take the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Koontz.

Eight statewide bars have handed down endorsements, with the results a veritable crazy quilt and with no runaway winner emerging. Judge Elizabeth McClanahan of the Court of Appeals is the ostensible leader in endorsements, having been tapped by all eight bars and given the highest recommendation by five. Danville Circuit Judge Joseph Milam was the only other candidate to be endorsed by all eight, earning the top backing of three.

There are 10 people in the running, including four members of the appeals court – Judges McClanahan, Arthur Kelsey, Randolph Beales and Robert Humphreys – and two circuit judges, Pamela Baskervill of Petersburg and Milam. Appellate lawyers Steve Emmert and Monica Monday round out the list, as do Virginia Beach litigator Glen Huff and William Thro, a former state solicitor general.

Those who earned the bar endorsements should rightfully consider them a vote of confidence in their abilities. But for better or worse, all the nice things that bar groups say may not mean that much once the Assembly is in session.

Del. Dave Albo, R-Fairfax, is chair of the House Courts of Justice Committee and will play a key role in whoever gets Koontz’s seat on the court.

He told this newspaper in an interview this week that he views himself as the broker of the process and he won’t be advocating one candidate over another.

The race is wide open, he indicated, and that basically it will depend on the effectiveness of a candidate’s legislative angels. An angel, in this context, is a legislator who will takes the candidate around to meet other legislators, talks up his guy’s or gal’s chances and serves as an advocate.

If needed, the angel may even work a deal for the candidate. Supreme Court Senior Justice Elizabeth Lacy once noted, famously, that the Assembly is a place where you might see a judge traded for a bridge.

Expect the 10 – or as many of the 10 that can spare the time – to be working the halls of the Assembly, meeting and greeting delegates and senators.

Albo provided some clues to the Assembly’s mindset in a separate interview with the Associated Press earlier in the week. Albo told the AP, “The perfect candidate is somebody who geographically represents an area not represented or underrepresented on the Supreme Court.”

He added, “It’s someone who has been an accomplished lawyer for years, has lots of experience and has been a judge for a little bit.”

Check your scorecards to figure out what the geographical comment means. If justices are identified with their original home areas, then Northern Virginia has Justices Bill Mims and LeRoy Millette; Central Virginia has Chief Justice Leroy Hassell and Justice Don Lemons; Hampton Roads has Justice Bernard Goodwyn; and Southwest Virginia has Justice Cynthia Kinser. The Valley and Southside aren’t presently represented, and the Southwest would lose a little clout with the departure of Koontz, who is from Salem.

The thought that the new justice should have prior judicial experience may be the most telling detail and could tilt things to the appeals court candidates, who have been not just judges but appellate jurists.

Expect the six candidates with judicial experience to play that card when making the rounds. And the other four have been trained as lawyers, so they should know how to distinguish an argument that goes against them.