Gov. Bob McDonnell | Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Judicial elections in Assembly go down to the wire

By Alan Cooper
Published: May 2, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judge Cleo E. Powell, Judge D. Arthur Kelsey, Judge Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Judgeships, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Court of Appeals News

Members of the House and Senate were still negotiating at press time to settle on candidates to fill two vacancies on the Supreme Court of Virginia, with Court of Appeals Judges Elizabeth A. McClanahan and Cleo E. Powell apparently acceptable to the majority caucuses of each house.
Senate Democrats had been distracted by redistricting, and some [...]

Med-mal cap survives Gov. McDonnell’s veto

By Alan Cooper
Published: April 11, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Medical Malpractice, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

The House of Delegates made quick work of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s veto of legislation that would raise the state’s cap on medical malpractice awards from $2 million to $3 million over 20 years.
After barely 10 minutes of discussion, the House overrode the veto Wednesday on a 93-7 vote, even more one-sided than the 89-7 vote [...]

Assembly to hold fewer interviews after delegations make cuts

By Alan Cooper
Published: April 5, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships

The General Assembly will be interviewing judicial candidates today and local delegations have been making cuts to reduce the number of people who will or won’t become a judge.
The chopped-down list of interviewees suggests that at least 10 delegations have made substantial progress in reaching agreement on a candidate. For several vacancies in circuit and [...]

Governor orders use of E-Verify

By Alan Cooper
Published: March 22, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Immigration

All Virginia executive branch agencies must use the federal E-Verify system to check immigration status before hiring an employee by June 1, 18 months earlier than called for in 2010 legislation.
That order yesterday from Gov. Bob McDonnell follows action by the General Assembly this session to require use of E-Verify by Dec. 1, 2013, by [...]

Bipartisan redistricting exercise contrasts with legislature’s work

By The Associated Press
Published: March 21, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell

(AP) The commission Gov. Bob McDonnell sanctioned to recommend compact, common-sense voting districts to the General Assembly met earlier this month week in a Capitol room full of spectators, a chair propping its door wide open.
Across Capitol Square, the legislative office suites and work rooms where a handful of lawmakers actually redraw the political boundaries [...]

Parties to med-mal cap deal getting nervous

By Alan Cooper
Published: March 18, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Medical Malpractice, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

Lawyers, doctors and hospital leaders thought they had finished the hard part last November, when they agreed gradually to increase the state’s statutory cap on medical malpractice awards.
Hammered out over three years of negotiations, the implementing legislation sailed through the General Assembly. The bills needed only the grace of the governor’s signature.
But proponents of the [...]

VSB dues would be cut by $10

By Alan Cooper
Published: March 16, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia State Bar

You may be paying lower bar dues next year.
Bar dues would go down $10, and VSB employees would get a 5 percent raise, under a 2011-12 budget adopted March 14 by the Virginia State Bar’s budget and finance committee.
The budget is subject to approval by the Supreme Court of Virginia and VSB Council.
The committee’s actions [...]

Disagreement reigned as 2011 assembly was coming to close

By Alan Cooper
Published: February 28, 2011
Tags: General Assembly News, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judge Elizabeth A. McClanahan, Supreme Court of Virginia, Virginia State Bar

The General Assembly neared the end of its 2011 regular session with budget conferees still in disagreement over how to address a freeze in filling circuit and district judicial vacancies and on Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s proposal to raid Virginia State Bar coffers.
It also appeared that the legislature would take no action on filling either [...]

Kinser formally installed as high court’s new chief

By Alan Cooper
Published: February 17, 2011
Tags: Gov. Bob McDonnell, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Justice Donald W. Lemons, Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy, Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr., Supreme Court of Virginia News

Cynthia Dinah Fannon Kinser was formally invested yesterday as Virginia’s first woman chief justice and only the 25th person to hold that position in the long history of the commonwealth.
With family, friends and much of the state’s political elite in front of her, Kinser said, “When I first became a lawyer many years ago, I [...]

Senate, House to reconcile how to thaw judicial freeze

By Alan Cooper
Published: February 9, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Redistricting

Come, let us reason together. It’s time for the “reconciliation” process.
The Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees have some serious reconciling to do on the freeze on filling judicial vacancies.
The Senate committee would melt the freeze by appropriating $4.8 million to fill all the vacancies the General Assembly created last year when it decided not [...]

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