The VLW Blog

The Supreme Court of Virginia adopts today a five-part test for determining whether an inadvertent disclosure of a document covered by the attorney-client privilege waives the privilege. The issue in Walton v. Mid-Atlantic Spine Specialists PC arose after a letter from an orthopedic surgeon to his attorney was copied by a company the surgeon’s practice [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia today reverses and remands the finding that breakaway Episcopal congregations in Northern Virginia can keep their church property against claims by the established church organization. The Supreme Court rules that a Civil War-era Virginia statute allowing dissident congregations to keep title to church property does not apply to the Episcopal [...]

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Former George Mason University law professor Kyndra Rotunda has settled the remaining claims in her sexual harassment lawsuit against the school and her former supervisor, Prof. Joseph Zengerle, reports the ABA Journal. Alexandria U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema dismissed most of the case last month, leaving only state law claims of assault and battery against [...]

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A mother can enforce a child support order from 1966, the Virginia Court of Appeals said today, making the father liable for $73,629 in support for a 42-year-old child. In 1966, an Alexandria divorce court ordered the dad to pay $30 per week for the couple’s three children. His support obligation ended in June, 1982, [...]

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  UPDATE: We ommitted another Richmond lawyer who completed the Potomac swim. Courtney Motes Paulk, a construction litigator, also participated in the event. Swimming season is officially here now that we’re past Memorial Day, but 7.5 miles? That’s what Richmond lawyers Shannon Varner and Mic McConnell did Saturday by participating the annual Potomac Swim for the [...]

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Seven Virginia circuit judges have set aside orders at the request of major newspapers in the state even though they concluded that the newspapers lacked standing to challenge the orders. At least one judge, Virginia Beach Circuit Judge A. Bonwill Shockley, refused to do so, however, and her case is the one that was before [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia will set aside $432,000 to pay for judges to fill vacancies created by state budget cuts. Beginning July 1, state officials will provide this funding to Virginia’s 18 district and circuit court systems affected by a state-mandated hiring freeze, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The money will be used to to [...]

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An unusual claim to land ownership will not face a challenge in Alexandria Circuit Court, reports the Alexandria Sanitation Authority. The utility has agreed to pay $36 million to a company formed by real estate developer Charles Hooff and Alexandria land use attorney Bernard Fagelson for a 10-acre parcel next door to the Alexandria wastewater [...]

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W. David Harless of Richmond has filed as a candidate for president-elect designate of the Virginia State Bar, which would put him in line to be VSB president in 2012-13. Harless is a partner and member of the executive committee at Christian & Barton LLP. He was elected to VSB Council in 2006 and joined its [...]

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A Norfolk federal judge has ruled a Virginia Beach resident has no coverage under his homeowner’s policy for Chinese drywall damage that forced him out of his home. The decision is among the first few insurance coverage rulings related to the sulfur-emitting wallboard imported for use in homes in Virginia, Florida and Louisiana. In a [...]

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