The VLW Blog

The L.A. Times offers a cautionary tale this week in a piece about how jury duty is becoming more of a hardship for members of the venire. In one civil trial, jurors who were already peeved at having to miss work became openly disdainful about the plaintiff’s claims. The juror hostility was so palpable the [...]

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Don’t like being called a “patent troll”? Tell it to the judge. DNT LLC is suing Sprint and Nextel over patents covering various wireless modem cards offered by Sprint and other vendors. The case raises round-peg-in-a-square-hole questions like, does a USB device fit into a credit card slot and thus meet the test to prove [...]

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The Senate voted 23-17 today to drastically increase filing fees in general district and circuit courts to provide money for sheriffs and commonwealth’s attorneys. Proponents of Senate Bill 329, patroned by Sen. Richard H. Stuart, R-Westmoreland, contend there is no other to generate about $50 million and save the jobs of about 1,400 deputy sheriffs. [...]

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Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, has asked New River Valley bar associations not to endorse judicial candidates but only to determine those with basic qualifications. The request has been met with some skepticism by members of the local bars, reports The Roanoke Times . Nutter wrote to the Montgomery-Radford Bar Association and the Pulaski Bar Association, [...]

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We all complain, but at least one Virginia prosecutor is prepared to step up and throw the book at the weather gods for damaging public property and interfering with justice. You can read the indictment of Mother Nature at Ken Lammers’ blog . By Peter Vieth

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A bill to broaden Virginia’s "move-over" law has advanced in the House of Delegates. The current law requires drivers to move to the left when approaching a stopped police, fire or rescue vehicle with flashing lights. (Slowing down generally is not enough , despite what some highway signs say.) A bill to expand the move-over [...]

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Would it have made any difference at Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon’s trial? Any difference, that is, if the court had had the benefit of proposed model jury instructions just out for federal judges that explicitly tell jurors to stay off their Blackberries, iPhones, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. When the judge tells jurors not to [...]

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The cost of filing general district court suits would almost triple and circuit court filing fees would increase at least six-fold under a bill that passed the Senate Finance Committee this morning. The $50 million that the increases would generate would go to sheriffs and commonwealth’s attorneys who are looking laying off employees as a [...]

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The Franklin County Bar Association has taken the unusual step of endorsing the reappointment of a sitting judge . Franklin County Circuit Judge William Alexander was passed over when judicial reappointments were routinely approved by the General Assembly last month. Published reports suggested several delegates had concerns about Alexander’s handling of a special grand jury [...]

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The House of Delegates has narrowly passed legislation crafted to shield one corporation from liability for asbestos claims. The vote was 49-to-48 to pass HB 629 , introduced by Del. Terry Kilgore to protect Crown Cork & Seal of Philadelphia. As reported by The Virginian-Pilot , Crown hopes to avoid successor liability for its 1963 [...]

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