The VLW Blog

Terming a $51-million renovation plan for Roanoke’s Poff Federal Building a “waste of taxpayer dollars,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, calls for a halt to the project.
The building is home to the U.S. District Court facilities in Roanoke, where the Chief Judge says security is a concern. Goodlatte complains the General Services Administration refused a request [...]

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Former Virginia Beach attorney Stephen Gunther has been sentenced to 20 months in prison and ordered to pay $231,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to fraud in connection with a series of real estate closings, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Gunther, 40, a resident of Hertford, N.C., allegedly used straw purchasers in [...]

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A trial judge’s comments about doctors leaving the profession because of rising med-mal premiums did not require reversal of a defense verdict in a premature infant’s med-mal suit.
Late yesterday, the 4th Circuit said that comments by Norfolk Senior U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar were not “plain error” that would win another trial for [...]

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An official from ALPS, the Virginia State Bar’s endorsed malpractice carrier, told the VSB Council yesterday that malpractice claims are up in Virginia.
The company’s loss ratios, the amount of money the company received in premiums versus the amount paid in claims, have been higher than expected for the past four years. Last year, the company [...]

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 VIRGINIA BEACH—The Virginia State Bar Council is expected to appoint Tracy A. Giles of Roanoke, Kevin E. Martingayle of Virginia Beach and Susan M. Pesner of McLean to its executive committee tomorrow.
The will replace Judith L. Rosenblatt of Virginia Beach and Theophani K. Stamos of Arlington, who have completed two three-year terms on council, and [...]

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VIRGINIA BEACH—The Virginia State Bar’s Standing Committee on the Unauthorized Practice law still wants to put more teeth in the criminal statute outlawing UPL.
Bar Council voted in June 2009 to ask the General Assembly to increase the penalty from a misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony, but the legislature’s budget staff projected that the measure [...]

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Two statute of limitations cases, one involving an allegation of legal malpractice, are among the 14 granted appeals the Supreme Court of Virginia has posted on its Web site this month.
The SOL cases are Laura Anna Head Kelley v. Pirsch & Associates PLLC (100446), which raises the issue of whether the three-year statute for an [...]

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Wise County Circuit Judge Joseph R. Carico will not be sitting on the bench until further notice, according to his two colleagues in the 30th Circuit.
Earlier this month, Judges John C. Kilgore and Tammy S. McElyea told attorneys that they would be handling Carico’s docket, said Wise Commonwealth’s Attorney Ronald Elkins. The judges did [...]

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A Chinese-owned company hit with a $2.6 million default judgment in favor of seven Virginia families has filed a notice of appeal in the federal case.
It’s the first known court appearance in the Chinese drywall litigation in this country by Taishan Gypsum Co., Ltd., a company owned by the Chinese government.
The notice of appeal was [...]

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A state law that says it is not negligent to fail to restrain a child in a vehicle does not abrogate the common law duty to protect the child, a divided Supreme Court of Virginia holds today.
Four-year-old Hannah Leigh Evans was seriously injured in a head-on collision after her father put her in a portable [...]

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