Senate GOP springs redrawn Senate lines on Dems

Tort reform bills passed by Assembly

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 14, 2013
Tags: General Assembly, Tort Reform, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

The Virginia General Assembly has approved a bundle of bills designed to make Virginia courts more business-friendly. At press time, only one bill from the package of tort reform measures hammered out in negotiations was still awaiting final approval by the full Senate. If approved by Gov. Bob McDonnell, the new measures will relax somewhat [...]

House speaker voids Senate GOP remap amendment

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: February 11, 2013
Tags: General Assembly

(AP) — Virginia’s Republican House speaker on Feb. 6 ruled against a measure muscled through by Senate Republicans to redraw all 40 state Senate districts, defusing a partisan dispute that had threatened to stymie progress on major legislation. House Speaker Bill Howell announced Wednesday that the vast Senate redistricting plan included in a Senate-passed amendment [...]

Assembly budget plans would fill more judgeships

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 7, 2013
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships

Both the House and Senate money committees are more generous to the courts than Virginia’s governor in terms of allocating money for judgeships. The House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees last week recommended filling more vacant judgeships than the 15 proposed by Gov. Bob McDonnell, but the House and Senate differed on where the judges [...]

Bill strengthens family mediator confidentiality

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: February 4, 2013
Tags: ADR, Domestic Relations, General Assembly

Family law mediators’ right to keep certain information confidential will be enhanced under a bill passed by the Virginia House of Delegates and awaiting action in a Senate courts committee. House Bill 1795, which passed the full House on Jan. 22, eliminates two provisions that require disclosure of financial information obtained to complete a child [...]

Fairfax needs judges

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 4, 2013
Tags: Bar Associations, Fairfax County Circuit Court, General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judge Dennis J. Smith, Judge Jonathan M. Apgar, Judge Robert P. Doherty Jr., Roanoke Circuit Court

Lawyers and legislators from various Virginia locales, including populous Fairfax County, say Gov. Bob McDonnell missed the mark when he proposed money to fill certain judgeships. The governor overlooked areas badly in need of judicial help, in part because the available caseload numbers are unreliable, Fairfax lawyers say. Other regions – including Arlington, Charlottesville, Roanoke, [...]

IOLTA bill killed for 2013 session

By Peter Vieth
Published: January 31, 2013
Tags: General Assembly, IOLTA, Legal Aid

A compromise bill to remove barriers to automatic use of attorney trust accounts to generate funding for legal aid cleared a House of Delegates Courts Committee only to be killed by its sponsor on the floor of the House. House Bill 1544 would have removed a ban on requiring the use of interest on lawyers’ [...]

Tort reform deal launched in House

By Peter Vieth
Published: January 24, 2013
Tags: General Assembly, Tort, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

A Virginia tort reform package has been launched from a House of Delegates subcommittee after trial lawyers and business groups hammered out a compromise on five key bills. Separately, the bills may look like so much tinkering around the edges of tort reform. But taken together, they recalibrate personal injury practice in Virginia. Given the [...]

Va. Senate committee backs felons’ rights bill

By The Associated Press
Published: January 23, 2013
Tags: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Criminal, General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell

(AP) — The Virginia Senate will consider legislation backed by Gov. Bob McDonnell to automatically restore nonviolent felons’ voting rights after the measure won a committee’s endorsement Tuesday. The Privileges and Elections Committee voted 10-5 to endorse a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment that would give the General Assembly authority to determine which nonviolent offenses [...]

Reforms of ‘actual innocence’ process advancing in Assembly

By Peter Vieth
Published: January 23, 2013
Tags: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Criminal, General Assembly

Virginia’s “relief valve” for the wrongly convicted could be opened a notch or two with changes now moving through the General Assembly. Supporters – led by Virginia’s attorney general – say reforms to the state’s “actual innocence” process could make it easier for those convicted of crimes to use new evidence to try to overturn [...]