The VLW Blog

Thanks to politics and posturing in the General Assembly, three judgeships in Hampton were left unfilled when the legislature last left Richmond, leaving the locals to clean up the mess.
Lawyers and judges in Hampton have been muddling through, but they wonder when politics will take a vacation – it’s been four long years since things [...]

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We don’t know why, exactly, but WTVR has posted the FBI file on the late civil rights lawyer Oliver Hill. There are seven parts. Viewed from present-day perspective, unsurprisingly, the documents say more about the agency than the subject of its inquiries.

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From the Roanoke Times comes word of the passing of former Rocky Mount lawyer Keister Greer.
From a 1999 news release on the re-appointment of Mr. Greer to the U.Va. Board of Visitors:
“T. Keister Greer has been a member of the Virginia Bar Association for 50 years and the California Bar Association for 45 years, specializing [...]

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The Bat Phone has rung again for the prosecutor in Fincastle. Botetourt County Commonwealth’s Attorney Joel Branscom has long been the go-to guy in Southwest Virginia to serve as special prosecutor when the local parties are too close for comfort. The latest call to arms comes from Roanoke. Commonwealth’s Attorney Don Caldwell [...]

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In the back-and-forth battle between the Staunton City Council and the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals, a circuit judge now is poised to appoint a lawyer to represent the BZA at the expense of the city, which sued the BZA in the first place. The News Leader is keeping track of the action, where [...]

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GINA actually isn’t a who, it’s a what.
As in the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, a new law signed by President Bush yesterday.
As discrimination laws go, it’s a first: it’s an anticipatory law that forbids something before it starts happening. GINA says that any genetic information can’t be used against someone in obtaining health insurance or [...]

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Norfolk Circuit Judge Chuck Griffith lost his job this spring when the General Assembly declined to give him a second eight-year term on the bench.
But he didn’t stay out of work long. In fact, the day after his term expired, Griffith reported to the office of Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant. Griffith took a [...]

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It’s been a long journey for the parties in the case of Simmons v. MTD and the end is not in sight. 4-year-old Justin Simmons was killed by a riding lawnmower in 2004. In 2006, a Roanoke jury returned a $2 million verdict against the maker of the lawnmower. The defendant [...]

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Pleading guilty to reckless driving and refusing a breath test, J&D Judge Michael Blankenship of Wytheville will not face a charge of driving under the influence. But Blankenship still has a hit-and-run charge from a separate incident, and he has been suspended from the bench by the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission. The Bristol Herald [...]

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On a second look, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals again turns thumbs down on Virginia’s law banning “partial birth abortions.” The Washington Post has the AP story.

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