The VLW Blog

A new lawsuit accuses Dominion Virginia Power of using a proposed golf course as a ruse to create a large dump site for coal ash.
The suit was brought by 62 homeowners and family members in the neighborhoods surrounding the Battlefield Golf Club, reports The Virginian-Pilot.
This comes on the heels of another class action suit [...]

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Virginia Tech says two cases alleging unequal treatment for women are so similar they should be combined for trial.
According to The Roanoke Times, both suits allege that women who worked as university fundraisers were harassed or were not paid as much as men who did the same work. The school denies all claims.
A [...]

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As if law students didn’t obsess enough about law school and bar exams, BARBRI is making a game of them.
The company, the largest provider of bar review courses, has put the BARBRI Challenge on the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch.
The free download at www.itunes.com/appstore/ provides a series of multiple-choice questions that players [...]

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A bare bones slip-and-fall complaint filed in Amherst County Circuit Court has run afoul of stringent new federal pleading standards following removal of the case to U.S. district court.
U.S. District Judge Norman Moon yesterday cited the new federal pleading standards in dismissing Holly Branham’s one-page complaint for failing to describe precisely how store employees were [...]

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Defense attorneys won’t have to spend any time drafting objections to the admission of affidavits and certificates of analysis in lieu of live testimony by analysts from the Virginia Department of Forensic Science.
The Supreme Court of Virginia has conveniently put forms for making the objections on its Web site, ready to be printed and filled [...]

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A jury room dispute is now public following a closely watched Shenandoah County murder trial.
Members of the jury recommended on Thursday that Jody Lynn Bradley serve nine years in prison for the second-degree murder of Brendon Manning Barker, a 16-year-old boy who was shot while visiting Bradley’s daughter.
Some jurors are now arguing that his sentence [...]

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A judge has dismissed the stalking charge against Danville Circuit Court Clerk Gerald Gibson.
Gibson submitted an accord and satisfaction, a document indicating the accused has paid for damages and the complainant agrees that the matter can be dismissed.  The case was handled by substitute Judge R. Morgan Armstrong of Henry County, according to The Register [...]

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A Spotsylvania County couple is weighing their legal options after finding out the driveway they thought they owned belongs to their next-door neighbor.
Maggie and Thomas Smith discovered the original surveyor’s mistake when they rehired the surveying company to mark the corners of their property for a fence line, reports The Free Lance-Star. Their neighbor has [...]

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If you’re asking the Court of Appeals to consider an issue of first impression, your appeal won’t be kicked under Rule 5A:20 for failing to cite precedent directly on point.
Duh, you say. But it’s more complicated than you might think.
Rule 5A:20, which covers “Questions Presented,” requires an appellant’s opening brief to cover the “principles [...]

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The Virginia State Bar has posted a schedule of training sessions for lawyers planning to help in a pro bono effort to notify convicts about the discovery of DNA evidence related to their charges.
The first session is Wednesday, Sept. 9, in the Richmond area.  Other sessions are set during September in Charlottesville, Virginia Beach and [...]

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