Judge choices dominate legal highlights for 2012

Dragas wins committee backing in Senate

By The Associated Press
Published: January 16, 2013
Tags: General Assembly

(AP) — The University of Virginia board member whose attempt to fire the school’s president prompted a two-week campus revolt moved a step closer to reappointment to a second term Tuesday. The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted 12-3 to confirm Gov. Bob McDonnell’s reappointment of U.Va. Rector Helen Dragas to the Board of Visitors. [...]

Assembly makes fast work of judicial elections

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 15, 2013
Tags: General Assembly, Judgeships, Judicial Selection

Lawmakers have set a fast pace during the 2013 term, a short session for the General Assembly. Members of the House and Senate courts committees were quick to get down to business on Jan. 14, when they interviewed judges appointed by the governor or by local courts to seats left vacant at the end of [...]

The Unusual Suspects

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

As the 2013 General Assembly session opened last week, a newly formed group of business leaders and lobbyists launched a well-financed campaign pushing dramatic changes to the rules for civil lawsuits in Virginia under the broad banner of “tort reform.” While hoping for support from normally business-friendly Republican lawmakers, the tort reform panel confronted a [...]

Judges could not use foreign law in divorce

By Peter Vieth
Published: January 7, 2013
Tags: Domestic Relations, Fairfax County Circuit Court, General Assembly, Virginia Court of Appeals News

With foreign-born persons now representing more than 11 percent of Virginia’s population, and more than 20 percent in three Northern Virginia counties, courts are being called upon more often to interpret foreign law, especially in divorce cases. One bill introduced for the coming General Assembly session aims to ensure that the use of foreign law [...]

Va. lawmakers likely to examine innocence law

By The Associated Press
Published: December 28, 2012
Tags: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Criminal, General Assembly

(AP) — Virginia lawmakers returning to Richmond in January are expected to consider relaxing the stiff legal challenges faced by wrongly convicted inmates seeking exoneration. The state’s so-called “21-day rule” has received heightened scrutiny in the wake of the high-profile Johnathan Montgomery case. The law says only an appellate court can consider new evidence of [...]

Lawmakers to target exploitation of elderly

By The Associated Press
Published: December 27, 2012
Tags: Elder Law, General Assembly

(AP) — Advocates of tougher laws against financial exploitation of the elderly and mentally incapacitated will press their case in the General Assembly again in 2013, this time with the imprimatur of the Virginia State Crime Commission. Legislation dealing with the issue has failed several years in a row as lawmakers struggled to protect the [...]

A new player in judicial elections

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 24, 2012
Tags: General Assembly, Judge Isaac St. C. Freeman, Judge Junius P. Fulton III, Judge William R. O'Brien, Judicial Selection

There is a new player at the table when it comes to the reelection prospects of judges in Virginia. A child advocacy group based in Tennessee commanded the attention of legislators at judicial interviews earlier this month by citing data in a special report it prepared for the General Assembly and distributed prior to the [...]

Crime panel endorses legislative proposals

By The Associated Press
Published: December 18, 2012
Tags: Criminal, General Assembly, Traffic Offenses

(AP) The Virginia State Crime Commission endorsed legislation Dec. 5 to increase penalties for illegal cigarette trafficking and for texting while driving. The panel also backed proposals to toughen the state’s police officer decertification law and allow the collection of biological evidence from sexual assault victims who are unconscious or otherwise unable to give consent. [...]

Report criticizes Va. judges on child abuse cases

By The Associated Press
Published: December 14, 2012
Tags: General Assembly, Judge Isaac St. C. Freeman, Judge Junius P. Fulton III, Judge William R. O'Brien, Judicial Selection

Only a small percentage of suspected crimes against children are prosecuted in Virginia, and very few of those cases result in meaningful prison sentences, a child advocacy group says in a new report. The National Association to PROTECT Children sent the report this week to members of two legislative committees that will meet Friday to interview [...]