The VLW Blog

The latest lawsuit over development in Blacksburg concerns a proposed Sonic drive-in, according to the Roanoke Times. A company fighting to build a big-box retail store (think Wal-Mart) in the college town claims that local authorities rejected the Sonic as retribution for the company’s success in court. Blacksburg has a petition for appeal in the [...]

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Judge Martin Clark’s newest novel, The Legal Limit, is drawing favorable reviews in the national press. Clark, who has been on the bench for 15 years, currently serves as a circuit court judge in Patrick and Henry Counties and the City of Martinsville. In a provocative introduction to his tale of two brothers, Clark says [...]

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A divided panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld yesterday the constitutionality of the lethal injection procedures Virginia uses to execute inmates sentenced to death. The opinion, Emmett v. Johnson, had been watched closely because it was the first federal appellate decision since the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Baze v. Rees, that [...]

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A Roanoke federal judge has refused to set aside a jury verdict that found a trucking company negligent for hiring an inexperienced driver for a hurry-up delivery of a “hot load.” That verdict, handed down in early May, may be founded on new law in the big-dollar, big-rig field of tractor-trailer litigation. On July 7, [...]

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Lawyers who follow the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals know the Richmond-based court is not generous with published opinions. According to a cover story in the June 2008 ABA Law Journal, the court, which has been short-handed for years, issued the lowest percentage of published opinions of all federal circuits in 2006 – 6 [...]

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Gov. Tim Kaine will have to fill judicial vacancies because the General Assembly adjourned this morning without filling any seats, just as it failed to reach agreement on transportation policy and funding. A deal that would have put Chesterfield County Circuit Judge Cleo E. Powell on the State Corporation Commission and Chief Court of Appeals [...]

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Irving M. Blank, a Richmond attorney and member of the Virginia State Bar executive committee, has announced that he is running for president-elect of the VSB. VSB bylaws require candidates for the position to submit a petition with the names of 50 attorneys by Oct. 1. The bylaws also require the candidate to have been [...]

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A Virginia judge can pass the collection plate at church, but the judge may not want to preach during the stewardship campaign, according to a new ethics advisory opinion for judges. Virginia’s Canons of Judicial Conduct clamp down on fund-raising activity for fear the prestige of the judge’s office will be perceived as leverage to [...]

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Former secretaries of state James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher are the big names associated with the National War Powers Commission, but the group that issued its report today on the interaction between the president and Congress on matters of war has a strong Virginia connection. The Miller Center of Public Affairs at the [...]

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In what his attorneys say is an effort to stop the financial bleeding, former pro football quarterback Michael Vick filed for Chapter 11 protection yesterday in Newport News. Bloomberg has an account of the filing, and we have the petition and a motion to extend the time to file a statement of financial affairs. His [...]

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