The VLW Blog

Michael Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback now doing time in federal prison on dogfighting charges, can keep nearly $20 million in bonuses paid by the team, a federal judge in Minneapolis ruled this morning. A special master found in October that Vick needed to pay back the money, but the judge said return of [...]

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Two big names in Roanoke’s legal community have changed addresses. Frank Flippin and Doug Densmore, late of the firm that bears their names – LeClairRyan Flippin Densmore – have joined Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore LLP. Both attorneys were founding members of Flippin Densmore Morse & Jessee, which was established in 1996. That firm merged [...]

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A proposal for a sweeping reorganization of the magistrate system barely cleared the House Courts of Justice Committee today on a 12-10 vote. “Good luck on the floor, Lacey,” committee Chairman David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, told the bill’s sponsor, Lacey E. Putney after the vote. Putney, I-Bedford, is carrying HB 903 at the request of [...]

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Alfred M. Tripp, the Norfolk circuit judge who has not been on the bench since October, has resigned, according to his lawyer. The reason? Tripp’s lawyer, Carl Eason, isn’t talking, citing client confidentiality. The Virginian-Pilot quotes one source as saying that Tripp had been barred from the courthouse. The reason? Again, no one is talking, [...]

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Handed down a year ago, the decision in Ford Motor Co. v. Benitez was one of the top legal news stories in 2007. In Benitez, the Supreme Court of Virginia upheld a $2,000 sanction against a defense attorney who, after discovery and a nonsuit in a products liability case, continued to press affirmative defenses with [...]

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