McDonnell to VSB: Hand over $5M

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 [...]

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. [...]

Disagreement reigned as 2011 assembly was coming to close

By Alan Cooper
Published: February 28, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, 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 [...]

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, 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, [...]

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 [...]

Senator to VSB: So where would you say we get the money?

By Peter Vieth
Published: January 26, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

The Virginia State Bar may have difficulty hanging on to its $5 million reserve fund. But there still may be hope for thawing the freeze on new judges in Virginia. Leaders from a number of the commonwealth’s bar groups trooped to Capitol Hill on Jan. 25, appearing before the House Appropriations Committee for an early-morning [...]

VSB backs off lobbying on judges, its reserve

By Alan Cooper
Published: January 20, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

The Virginia State Bar will try to keep a low profile on the two major issues facing the legal system in the General Assembly this session, VSB President Irving M. Blank told the organization’s executive committee recently. “The ball has been handed off to the voluntary bars” on the issue of the freeze in judicial [...]

Bills would increase GDC claim limits

By Peter Vieth
Published: January 6, 2011
Tags: Boyd-Graves Conference, General Assembly, General District Courts, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Personal Injury, Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

Plaintiffs with minor personal injury claims and other civil litigators with small-scale claims may have greater access to Virginia general district courts under a pending legislative proposal. But not everyone thinks that’s a good idea. The plan, contained in two similar bills, would expand the jurisdiction of general district court cases to permit civil cases [...]

Governor’s plan doesn’t include any new judges

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 30, 2010
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia State Bar

Gov. Bob McDonnell may not plan on funding any new judges next year, despite his request last month that the Virginia State Bar hand over $5 million for general state spending. Although his remarks to state lawmakers state he wanted to use $1.7 million “to fill longstanding priority judicial vacancies,” McDonnell’s budget presentation indicates that [...]