Bolling casts tie-breaking vote on power sharing

McDonnell proposes funding for 15 judgeships

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 13, 2012
Tags: Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships

Gov. Bob McDonnell’s budget for fiscal year 2014 includes funding to fill the 15 neediest Virginia trial court vacancies – with one exception – according to raw caseload numbers from the Supreme Court of Virginia. McDonnell proposes to fill five circuit court vacancies, eight general district court vacancies and two juvenile and domestic relations court [...]

Assembly, governor mulling how to implement Obamacare

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 19, 2012
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Health Care Bill

Obamacare is here to stay, following the results of this month’s presidential election. And the 2013 General Assembly is expected to face decisions on Virginia’s role in a national health care plan. State officials are staking out positions on the details of the inevitable national plan. One Virginia health care lawyer urges doctors and other [...]

Governor to lawmakers: Get answers before action

By The Associated Press
Published: July 16, 2012
Tags: Gov. Bob McDonnell, Health Care Bill

(AP) Gov. Bob McDonnell told state legislators Tuesday that Virginia policymakers need more answers from President Barack Obama’s administration about Medicaid before they respond to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the federal health care reform law. In a letter to Virginia senators and delegates, McDonnell said there is no need for a special legislative [...]

New laws: Voter ID, ultrasound, DUI measures now in effect

By The Associated Press
Published: July 5, 2012
Tags: DUI, General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell

(AP) As of July 1, Virginians have to bring identification to the polls with them, undergo pre-abortion sonograms and pay for ignition interlock devices on their cars if they are convicted of drunken driving. Laws passed by the long-running, often fractious 2012 General Assembly took effect at the first of the month. Other new laws [...]

Focus turns now to unfilled judgeships

By Peter Vieth
Published: May 25, 2012
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judge Teresa M. Chafin, Judgeships

As the dust settled from the 2012 General Assembly, the empty seat on Richmond’s general district bench was not the only funded judgeship left unfilled. While the House of Delegates’ vote to block the election of Richmond prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland to a judgeship made headlines around the country, there were other vacancies left unfilled and [...]

Forgiving felons? Something new in the GOP playbook

By The Associated Press
Published: May 14, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Gov. Bob McDonnell

(AP) This is not in your grandfather’s Republican playbook: forgiveness toward felons. But Gov. Bob McDonnell is on pace to restore the civil rights of more people who’ve done their time than any governor in modern Virginia history. Republicans would scald a Democrat who did that as being soft on crime. But for McDonnell, a [...]

Bill creates ‘new class of plaintiffs’

By Peter Vieth
Published: March 28, 2012
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

Legislation approved by the General Assembly – but not yet signed by the governor – would create a new class of plaintiffs in Virginia civil litigation: representatives of the unborn. Some observers warn the bill creating a cause of action for the wrongful death of a fetus would give birth to a new coterie of [...]

House budget would ‘defrost’ 33 judgeships

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 27, 2012
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships

House budget planners appear to want to turn up the heat the highest when it comes to unfreezing Virginia judgeships. A House Appropriations subcommittee last week recommended filling 33 trial court judgeships that would otherwise be left unfilled under the current freeze. The House plan would fill approximately two-thirds of the now-frozen judgeships, according to [...]

State facing over three dozen judicial vacancies

By Peter Vieth
Published: February 8, 2012
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships, Supreme Court of Virginia News

Without extra funding, Virginia courts will be shorthanded by at least 37 judges by the end of this year, with another 12 mandatory retirements coming in 2013, the Supreme Court of Virginia has told state legislators. The numbers are included in the court’s presentation to members of the General Assembly’s money committees as they consider [...]