The VLW Blog

Virginia Senators John Warner and Jim Webb have recommended candidates they say are “outstanding Virginians with exemplary qualifications” for federal judgeships in the Eastern District of Virginia: ? Joanne F. Alper of Arlington, a Virginia circuit judge in Arlington County ? Mark S. Davis of Portsmouth, a Virginia circuit judge in Portsmouth ? Dennis W. [...]

[Read more →]

In case you’ve been waiting for a Virginia court to weigh in on the theory of “deepening insolvency,” that time has come. The theory is a way of holding corporate directors liable for operating a financially strapped company in a way that only digs a deeper hole – penalizing them for not knowing when to [...]

[Read more →]

The Norfolk jail has changed its lawyer visitation policy … again. Now, lawyers can visit their clients behind bars in the cell blocks, so long as they sign a waiver form acknowledging the jail’s safety policies, reports The Virginian-Pilot. The sheriff changed the policy last year to require lawyer-client meetings in visitation rooms after female [...]

[Read more →]

Virginia Solicitor General William E. Thro unsuccessfully asserted the sovereignty of the commonwealth in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the appeal of a lesbian mother who is attempting to sever the parental rights of her former partner. In an amicus brief in the case of Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins, Record No. 06-1110, Thro cited [...]

[Read more →]

The Virginian-Pilot has obtained the ethics complaint that Virginia Beach circuit judges filed against Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey L. Bryant III and Bryant’s formal response to the complaint. The judges said they were concerned about reports that Bryant had said at a Republican breakfast in February he was keeping a record of “illegal conduct” by Virginia [...]

[Read more →]

Virginia’s law regulating viatical settlements has been upheld by a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a viatical settlement, a terminally ill patient sells a life insurance policy to a third party that picks up the premium payments and collects the proceeds when the patient dies, notes The Associated Press. Virginia’s [...]

[Read more →]

James W. Renney Sr. will be remembered by many people as the longtime master of ceremonies at the annual shad planking in Wakefield. That time-honored Virginia political event has attracted politicians and candidates from both parties for years. Mr. Renney, a former mayor of Wakefield, died April 26 at the age of 80. A graduate [...]

[Read more →]

The results are in for the February 2007 bar exam. There will soon be 323 new Virginia-licensed attorneys, as reported by the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners. A total of 596 candidates took the February exam, for a pass rate of 54 percent. This figure is consistent with years past. Nearly 80 percent of the [...]

[Read more →]