The VLW Blog

For those of you who suspect that the Supreme Court of Virginia has never seen an easement dispute that it didn’t think merited its attention, we have three more examples today. One, Hafner v. Hansen, involves what seems to be the court’s all-time favorite topic, an easement by prescription, or what a property owner hoped [...]

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Virginia’s court-appointed lawyers are working strictly on the straight fee plan until July 1, according to an April 13 memo from Supreme Court Executive Secretary Karl Hade. The $4.2 million allocated for fee cap waivers for FY2010 has run dry, according to Hade’s memo. The $4.2 million available for FY2011 becomes available July 1, for [...]

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When arriving at an equitable distribution of a couple’s property, it’s only logical to start with the presumption that assets and debts acquired or incurred during the marriage are marital rather than individual, right? Logical perhaps, but the Supreme Court of Virginia says today that Virginia Code § 20-107.3 creates the presumption that assets are [...]

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A Wythe County man whose property may set some kind of record for condemnation actions has won an early skirmish in his battle to extract more compensation from the state Department of Transportation. Wythe County Circuit Judge Joey Showalter denied VDOT’s motion to dismiss the inverse condemnation action filed by Edd Jennings, reports The Roanoke [...]

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Today’s crop of 18 opinions from the Supreme Court of Virginia brings additional evidence that lawyers still struggle to follow the rules about proper parties in civil actions. In Johnson v. Hart, the beneficiary of a will was dissatisfied with the work of the attorney who served as executor of the will. When she sued [...]

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President Barack Obama nominated Richmond lawyer John A. Gibney Jr. today for a U.S. District Court vacancy in Richmond. Virginia’s U.S. senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner, had recommended Gibney for the post and hailed the nomination. It has been more than a year since statewide bar groups vetted candidates for the vacancy created when [...]

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One of the effects of the General Assembly’s repeated refusal to increase the mandatory retirement age for  judges is to discourage experienced attorneys from seeking seats on the bench, laments Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke. Speaking to the Roanoke Bar Association Tuesday, Edwards noted the House of Delegates has regularly shot down bills he’s introduced to [...]

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The Roanoke Bar Association today voted to recommend U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski for the vacancy created when U.S. District Judge Norman Moon took senior status in February. Virginia’s two U.S. senators have requested recommendations from bar groups for the Moon vacancy in the Western District and for the seat to open up in the [...]

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An Abingdon federal judge has decided not to impose prison time for a dentist who wrote phony prescriptions for nearly a decade to feed his own drug habit. The decision by Chief U.S. District Judge James Jones provides hope for turning what one writer called a “harrowing story of addiction” to a tale of redemption [...]

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The Library of Virginia offers easy access to hundreds of records of historic equity disputes, large and small. Bedford County’s chancery records from 1755 to 1912 are among the latest local records to be processed, indexed and digitally reformatted, reports The News & Advance. These documents – which involve disputes over land, business, wills, debt [...]

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