The VLW Blog

Two $10-million wrongful death lawsuits against Virginia Tech officials arising from the 2007 campus shootings have been scheduled for a nine-day trial beginning Sept. 26. The cases, brought by the only victims of the massacre who did not accept state settlement deals, are being heard in Montgomery County Circuit Court by Franklin County Judge William [...]

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A federal appeals court has affirmed approval of a government-backed project where an Arlington church shares space with subsidized apartments in a single 10-story building. In a Dec. 23 opinion, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the constitutional challenge of Arlington resident Peter Glassman who said the project violated [...]

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Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax County, says the Virginia State Bar overstepped its mission in lobbying the legislature for more judicial spending. Albo, chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee, views the plan by Gov. Bob McDonnell to use the VSB’s $5-million cash reserves for general spending as a rebuff to the VSB’s advocacy for [...]

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A Charlottesville judge has ruled lawyers for accused killer George Huguely cannot access medical records of victim Yeardley Love other than a prescription for medication. Defense lawyers sought Love’s medical records, contending that heart problems may have caused or contributed to her death. After reviewing the records in camera, Circuit Judge Robert Downer ordered Wednesday [...]

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Alexandria Bankruptcy Judge Stephen S. Mitchell is retiring in August, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is seeking applications for his successor. Mitchell, 65, was appointed to the bankruptcy court in December 1994 after practicing law for 15 years in Alexandria with the general practice firm of McKinley, Schmidtlein & Mitchell. After graduating [...]

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Is there a two-blow rule for a bare-knuckled fight, before it counts as unlawful wounding? The question arises from today’s reversal of an unlawful wounding conviction by the Virginia Court of Appeals in Worrell v. Commonwealth. Defendant Demonte Worrell’s actions were limited to landing a single punch on the face of the victim, Larry Donnell. [...]

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An effort to get legal commentary on the cheap has backfired on West Publishing Corp., The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Two law professors had split $10,000 for providing an annual update on Pennsylvania criminal procedure for the legal publisher. But when the West suggested reducing that to $2,500 each, they decided to stop work on the [...]

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An injured drugstore employee who wanted to keep her workers’ comp benefits needed to do more than accept the light-duty job offered by her employer, the Virginia Court of Appeals said today. She needed to keep looking for work, the appellate court said in CVS #1549 v. Plunkett. The panel reversed an award of benefits [...]

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Paul Caron, author of the TaxProf Blog, has crunched a new set of numbers to rank law schools. The way Caron weighs the numbers, the University of Virginia comes out number one, as reported by the ABA Journal. Caron analyzed data from Princeton Review to compile his own list of top law schools. Yale comes [...]

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The U.S. Senate has confirmed North Carolina Superior Court Judge Albert Diaz for a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reports The Charlotte Observer. Diaz becomes the third North Carolinian on the court, and the first Hispanic 4th Circuit judge. -Posted by Peter Vieth

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