The VLW Blog

The Senate Courts of Justice Committee was apparently unimpressed by two prosecutors who are seeking a judgeship in the 10th Circuit. This afternoon, the Committee found Darrell W. Puckett, the commonwealth’s attorney in Appomattox County, to be qualified for the seat on a vote of 6-5-1. It did not certify Kimberley S. White, Puckett’s counterpart [...]

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A special prosecutor concluded today that Chesterfield County police were justified in fatally shooting a lawyer after he fired at officers who had been called to his home. The lawyer, Richard C. Ferris II, confronted officers twice from the garage of the home after an overnight standoff about 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 28, according to [...]

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The decision by the University of Maryland’s law school to change its name in exchange for a $30-million donation begs the question for law schools everywhere: what’s your name worth? The Maryland school agreed to call itself the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in honor of the donor’s grandfather, according to [...]

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Bruce F. Jamerson, clerk of the House of Delegates for the past 20 years, has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was found about 2:30 a.m. today along a path near the river at Watkins Landing in Powhatan County. A Virginia State Police bloodhound was used to search for him after his car [...]

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The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Virginia’s request for fast track consideration of the state’s challenge to the federal health care program. No opinion or dissents accompanied the brief announcement Monday that the “petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment” filed by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli was denied. “The Supreme Court rarely expedites cases [...]

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Liberty University’s law school moves to the head of the class with a 100 percent pass rate for the February Virginia bar exam. The five LU students who sat for the test all passed, reports the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners. Washington & Lee and George Mason law students also scored well in the February [...]

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U.S. District Judge James Jones minced no words denying lawyer John Flannery’s claim that the judge had secret meetings with prosecutors in the Paul Thomson cocaine case.  “Mr. Flannery’s assertion is outrageously false and unfounded,” Jones wrote in an order Thursday. Flannery – who is defending the Winchester lawyer accused of buying cocaine from a [...]

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After a failed appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia, a previously imposed 12-month suspension for Norfolk-based attorney Curtis Brown is now effective. A panel of Norfolk Circuit Court judges found that he made false statements to a jury during a 2007 personal injury case in Chesapeake, reports The Virginian-Pilot. The suspension order indicates Brown [...]

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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed today the largest jury verdict in Virginia in 2009, a $13.5 million false advertising judgment for PBM Products LLC, the Virginia-based manufacturer of store-brand baby formula. The verdict was against Mead Johnson & Company, the manufacturer of Enfamil baby formula. PBM contended that Mead Johnson had engaged [...]

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A free telephone CLE seminar will be presented at noon Thursday for attorneys wanting to provide pro bono services for those affected by tornadoes recently in Pulaski, Gloucester and Mathews counties, among other localities. Those attending the seminar will be asked to volunteer for the emergency legal services disaster program coordinated by the Young Lawyers [...]

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