The VLW Blog

A Campbell County businessman is letting everyone known just how he feels about having to call a halt to weekend automobile sales on his parking lot. Apparently, roofing supply dealer Melvin T. Morgan used to allow folks to sell their cars on his parking lot, a prominent location on heavily traveled U.S. Route 460 near [...]

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A Roanoke federal jury Thursday returned a defense verdict for an alarm company sued over a tragic communications breakdown. A Franklin County man who cared for his disabled son at his home ordered an alarm system from Lifeline Systems.  The father, suffering from a heart condition, feared for his son’s safety if he fell victim [...]

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“In the very near future, we will have a hiring freeze,” Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. told the Committee on District Courts today. He said the court system is reviewing all discretionary spending and already has implemented a delayed hiring policy. Hassell added that the freeze may thaw a little for vacancies in general [...]

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Gov. Timothy M. Kaine offered no silver lining for the state’s financial woes as he met with reporters at the Blue Ridge Parkway today.  The budget cuts announced this week address a $1 billion shortfall for 2009.  Kaine says the projected shortfall for 2010 is $1.5 billion. “As I go forward to the 2010 task [...]

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A former defense contractor pleaded guilty this week to taking part in a scheme to steal U.S. Army fuel worth nearly $40 million.  According to a Justice Department news release, Lee Dubois, 32, and his cohorts used phony documents to refill trucks again and again with aviation and diesel fuel at an Army base in [...]

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Anyone holding their breath waiting for the New York Times to publish its anticipated review of Circuit Judge Martin Clark’s novel “The Legal Limit” must have long since turned blue and passed out.  Relief came this month with a glowing appreciation written by author Allison Glock: “Clark’s real strength is his familiarity with the material. [...]

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Fastcase’s Authority Check versus LexisNexis Shepard’s Citation Service? Is it even fair to compare the two? These questions dominated discussion today at a meeting of the Virginia State Bar Task Force on On-Line Legal Research. Chaired by VSB president-elect Jon Huddleston, the group is gathering information to help the VSB decide whether to renew its [...]

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In a case that surely will have gym owners checking their liability coverage, a Prince William County man has won a $300,000 jury verdict against a gym where he underwent a “CrossFit” workout regimen that, he claimed, left him disabled. Makimba Mimms, 29, sued Manassas World Gym, Ruthless Training Concepts and its former employee, Javier [...]

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In this Monday’s edition of Virginia Lawyers Weekly, our Alan Cooper reported that Gov. Tim Kaine was preparing to name several judges to the circuit bench in Norfolk. Today’s the day: The governor, according to a release from his office, has appointed three men – a General District Judge, a J&DR judge and a commonwealth’s [...]

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A divorce court cannot order that custody will automatically change from mom to dad if the mother decides to move out of Virginia or more than 30 miles from the father’s home, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled today. In Demuth v. Demuth, an appellate panel reversed a Prince William County Circuit Court decision that [...]

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