The VLW Blog

The jury hearing the case against a man accused of running down and killing a Roanoke lawyer will not get to hear about a similar vehicle assault that occurred two days later. Circuit Judge William Alexander excluded the evidence late today in the trial of Jeffery Young, the man charged with murder in the death [...]

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The legal wrangling over visitation for 7-year-old Isabella Miller continues. Isabella was the child born to Lisa Miller in April 2002 after she and Janet Jenkins had entered into a civil union in Vermont. Miller subsequently sought to have the union dissolved, and Jenkins was awarded visitation rights as part of the dissolution. However, Miller [...]

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What if nobody wanted to be president of the Virginia State Bar? You get there by submitting a petition with 50 names on it by Oct. 1 to be the president-elect designate 21 months before your term as president would begin. If more than one candidate files a petition, an election is conducted by a [...]

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Lawyers talk (and write) endlessly about what happens in the courthouses of the nation, but rare is the case where the populace at large takes much interest.  In two recent cases, however, scores of Virginians hit the streets, publicly protesting what they saw as injustice in the courts. In both cases, marchers were outraged at [...]

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Not to be outdone by the recent remake of the Web site for Virginia’s court system, the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys now has taken the wraps off its spiffed-up Internet home. The VADA site offers a member directory search box on the home page, as well as direct links to various practice sections.

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The Virginia State Bar is posting a warning about an e-mail scam targeting Virginia lawyers. According to the advisory, a law firm is approached through e-mail with what appears to be a legitimate business opportunity.  Almost always, the deal eventually involves an apparently valid check being deposited into the firm’s trust account, with payment then [...]

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DNA may be the most powerful personal identification tool available, but the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution does not require DNA testing for criminals after they are convicted, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thursday’s ruling in District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne may not have a dramatic effect on the wrongly convicted, according [...]

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The Metro Business section of today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch features a profile of McGuireWoods chairman Richard Cullen. The article focuses on the role that business and politics have played in Cullen’s legal career.

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A man charged with murder and hit-and-run in the death of Roanoke lawyer Tom Farrell goes on trial today. The defendant, Jeffrey Young, has a long history of mental illness, reports WDBJ. Young is also the defendant in another case where he’s accused of hitting a woman in a Floyd County grocery store parking lot [...]

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Legal and ethical questions have been raised by the apparent decision by an accused killer to seek his own execution. Waverly Whitlock, who was charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy, has volunteered for the death penalty, according to the Daily Progress. His motives for the decision have not been [...]

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