The VLW Blog

The Virginia Poverty Law Center has launched its new John Kent Shumate Jr. Advocate of the Year awards by recognizing two Virginians who have worked to enhance the rights of the downtrodden. Harrisonburg lawyer Tom Domonoske works primarily on auto sales fraud cases and often helps the local legal aid office.  “Tom does not merely [...]

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Fresh from a 50-city book tour, Virginia’s newest legal literary figure laments having to share many of the same thoughts and stories with different audiences day after day.  “I’ve become Shecky Greene doing the Catskills,” joked Patrick County Circuit Judge Martin Clark as he addressed the Roanoke Bar Association. Sharing the agenda with a tribute [...]

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Best-selling author John Grisham will be the host of a fund-raiser for the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society and the Legal Aid Justice Center Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Toad’s Place, 140 Virginia St.in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom.Virginia First Lady Anne Holton, a former legal aid attorney and juvenile and district relations district court judge in [...]

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Credit might be a problem for individuals, businesses and even some local governments. Not for the Commonwealth of Virginia, however.All three major bond-rating agencies give the state their highest credit rating, Gov. Tim Kaine says in this press release from his office. The ratings were issued prior to the issuance of general obligation bonds this [...]

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According to this blog post, there are three candidates, so far, for next month’s election to fill the seat of former Fredericksburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Charles Sharp.  Gov. Timothy M. Kaine in August appointed Sharp to the circuit court bench. The announced candidates are assistant Fredericksburg prosecutor La Bravia J. Jenkins, local attorney Joseph “Jeh” Hicks, [...]

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The law school at the College of William & Mary is using the occasion of Veterans Day today to announce the formation of a clinic to help veterans seeking disability benefits. Beginning in January, eight law students and two adjunct professors will help veterans with the filing, adjudication, and appeal of service-related disability compensation claims, [...]

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Circuit City Stores Inc., the Richmond-based electronics giant, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this morning. The company’s action comes after stiff competition from Best Buy Co. and losses of $320 million last year. Circuit City said it hopes to remain open during the holiday season, as it puts together a restructuring and reorganization plan. In [...]

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State election officials sued by the McCain campaign say Virginia law requires them to ignore any ballots received after Election Day, even though many military voters may not have received absentee ballots in time to be delivered back to registrars by Nov. 4. “The Defendants must object to the plaintiffs’ attempt to re-write Virginia law [...]

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That’s what the Virginia Court of Appeals said this week to a Fairfax couple who divorced in 2006 but still managed to accumulate a 6,000-page, 19-volume joint appendix in their 2008 appeal. Jeffrey and Lynette Fadness married in 1980 and reared three children to adulthood. Jeffrey appealed last year, then appealed again, complaining that the [...]

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The Culpeper County supervisors must have felt like they were chasing their tails trying to make sense of the definitions in the new county animal code.  County Attorney Roy Thorpe was telling the board that they should update the county animal laws to make them conform with the state code.  Furthermore, Thorpe said that the [...]

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