The VLW Blog

Alleged mishandling of a personal injury claim has brought a three-year suspension for Richmond-area lawyer Sara Davis Harman, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The paper reports Harman also is being sued for malpractice over her handling of the injury claim. According to the paper, the suspension followed an agreement earlier this month by Harman to surrender [...]

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Voyeuristic police officers who passed around revealing photographs discovered on a defendant’s cellphone are not subject to a civil rights suit by the defendant’s girlfriend, pictured in the photos. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday rejected the appeal by Jessie Casella, who sought damages for her humiliation from Culpeper police under section 1983. [...]

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Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed two budget amendments today that will affect the judiciary’s budget. He suggests $1.7 million for what he described as “longstanding priority judicial vacancies” and an additional $5.4 million to the criminal fund to help pay the cost of representing indigent defendants. The amount allocated for judicial vacancies would cover the salary [...]

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Leroy R. Hassell Jr., son of the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, pleaded guilty to robbery and two other charges Thursday, apparently with no deal on sentencing, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. A life sentence is possible, according to the paper. Hassell admitted taking part in a two-man robbery using an “airsoft” gun, [...]

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The Senate confirmed John A. Gibney Jr. tonight for a U.S. District Court seat in Richmond. Gibney, a partner in the Richmond firm of ThompsonMcMullan, was recommended for the seat in September 2009 by Virginia’s Democratic Senators, Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner. President Barack Obama nominated him in April and the Judiciary Committee granted [...]

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A bail bondsman’s encounter with a man at a funeral must have looked a little like an episode of “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” Clifton L. Collins came up from North Carolina to Mecklenburg County because he heard a man he was looking for would be attending a funeral. The man he sought had skipped out [...]

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In a much-anticipated decision, a Richmond U.S. District judge has struck the mandatory insurance provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Describing “an individual’s personal decision to purchase – or decline to purchase – health insurance from a private provider” as “beyond the historical reach of the Commerce Clause,” U.S. District Judge Henry [...]

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Court personnel are on the front lines of customer service every day. So it’s nice when someone notices these public servants can’t always respond to the guff they can get when dealing with the public. When he got a summons to appear for jury duty in Norfolk Circuit Court, James C. Henderson went to the [...]

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Former Virginia Beach attorney Philip Leibman has been charged with practicing law the week after his license was revoked by the Virginia State Bar. The criminal charge was returned among indictments from a Virginia Beach grand jury on Monday. A news release from the commonwealth’s attorney’s office said Liebman represented a client in general district [...]

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Playing age-guessing games is just one of the ways to waste time online. Or maybe it should be a new investigative tool for law enforcement. It turns out that age, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. A case of mistaken identity turned on a suspect’s age, in a case released today by Big [...]

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