The VLW Blog

A surety’s marketing brochure did not fully support a damage award for a contractor on claims of fraudulent inducement and false advertising under Virginia law, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held earlier this week. Persaud Companies signed a $3.5 million subcontract for work on a border fence project in Texas, which required it [...]

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A federal jury in Richmond has awarded $212 million, including $200 million in punitive damages, to a Fredericksburg-area man who suffered severe medical complications from the drug Botox. Douglas Ray Jr. received an injection of the drug to treat a hand tremor and writer’s cramp. He alleged that complications from that injection resulted in total [...]

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In a strongly worded letter, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli Wednesday fired the firm of King & Spalding as outside counsel for Virginia agencies in response to the firm’s decision to end its defense of the Defense of Marriage Act. Amid pressure from gay rights groups, K&S this week announced it was dropping the U.S. [...]

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The General Assembly was too distracted by redistricting this evening to negotiate seriously on filling two vacancies on the Supreme Court of Virginia, but legislators did manage to fill 14 lower court seats on which local delegations had agreed. Senate Democrats finally got around to a counter-offer to House Republicans on the Supreme Court vacancies, [...]

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Federal court may not be the place to resolve a dispute over a Medicare lien for a personal injury settlement, but a federal judge has refused to impose sanctions for bringing the issue to his court. In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson denied a motion for sanctions where the auto accident [...]

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Virginia’s eight law schools will begin a round of commencement exercises this weekend. The graduation speakers at the schools are an eclectic lot. Here’s a rundown of who will be offering comments at ceremonies across the commonwealth. Appalachian School of Law. ASL will hold its commencement this coming weekend. On April 30, the speaker is [...]

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Virginia lawyers will be able to renew their bar licenses online in June. It’s the first time the Virginia State Bar has offered “e-renewal,” but it may not be a boon for all attorneys. The web-based renewal form will allow only one lawyer at a time to check the boxes and pay dues by credit [...]

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Charlottesville lawyer Kevin Ryan does his best Humphrey Bogart imitation in a video he and three staff members at MichieHamlett produced as part of the Big Read program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. The program encourages everyone in an area to read a particular book, and the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library selected Dashiell [...]

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The television documentary on the Roanoke Valley’s drug treatment court has picked up another set of awards. “The Arrest Is Only the Beginning” was made in 2009 to demonstrate the effectiveness of Virginia’s drug court programs. The 26-minute video now has won gold Aurora Awards in two categories: social issues and documentary. It also picked [...]

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Senior U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser was regaled by colleagues and friends Monday as he received the Roger L. Groot Professionalism Award from the Ted Dalton American Inn of Court in Salem. Kiser, a former Martinsville lawyer, was appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan in 1981. His noteworthy decisions include a ruling [...]

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