The VLW Blog

It was a good day in the Supreme Court of Virginia for the holders of big verdicts. The court affirmed seven-figure judgments in four cases with nothing in common other than the size of the awards. In Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner v. Target Corp., the court upheld an award of $3.3 million in damages to the [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia releases its latest batch of opinions tomorrow. If you have a case pending in the high court, some new numbers may help you figure out whether it will be thumbs up or thumbs down for your client. In a case that has been argued, but not yet decided by order, [...]

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Was it a grand gesture on a moonlit night? That first flush of new parenthood? We don’t really get the details in Miller v. Miller, decided yesterday by the Virginia Court of Appeals. But we do know now that just throwing a prenuptial agreement into a fire did not revoke the prenup, whatever the couple [...]

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Congratulations to two of our Dolan Media Company sister papers for the debuts of their respective blogs. Our colleagues at the Daily Journal of Commerce in Portland have been blogging since mid-August and went live last week. And our colleagues at Michigan Lawyers Weekly started their blog, called Michigan Lawyer, last Friday. Cheers!

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Northern Virginia will have to wait a while longer for a ruling on the constitutionality of the state’s civil remedial fees. Thaddeus Furlong, an attorney for a Centreveille man charged with reckless driving for traveling 75 mph in a 55 mph zone, had challenged the statute. However, Arlington General District Judge Thomas J. Kelly Jr. [...]

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Today the Supreme Court of Virginia heard argument in JIRC v. Shull, the case in which the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission is seeking censure or removal of a Wise County juvenile judge who had a woman lower her pants in the courtroom to let the judge examine a knife wound above her knee. When [...]

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A second Virginia Circuit Court judge was asked today to overrule a lower court decision holding the state’s civil remedial fees unconstitutional. Richmond Circuit Judge Walter W. Stout III told traffic defense attorney G. Barton Chucker and Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring at the end of a 30-minute hearing, “I’m not going to give you [...]

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The judicial nominations committee of the Virginia State Bar has found five candidates highly qualified to fill the vacancy created by the retirement Court of Appeals Judge James W. Benton Jr. They are: ? Chesterfield County Circuit Judge Michael C. Allen? Frank K. Friedman, a partner in the Roanoke firm of Woods Rogers PLC? Chesapeake [...]

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President Bush yesterday nominated Richmond lawyer E. Duncan Getchell Jr. for a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But minutes after the announcement, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, Sen. Jim Webb issued a statement blasting the choice. He and Republican Sen. John Warner, in a bipartisan effort, had submitted five names to Bush [...]

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Paper or plastic? It was a plastic bag that Kenney Williams pulled out of his pocket at a shopping-mall shoe store on July 3, 2005. Into that bag he stuffed a boxed pair of shoes. Without paying for the shoes, he left the store, only to be apprehended in the mall parking lot. Concealing the [...]

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