The VLW Blog

A Virginia State Bar discipline committee rejected First Amendment defenses and distinctions about public information to find misconduct on the part of a lawyer who blogged about his cases without client consent and without a disclaimer saying case results can be unreliable. The eight-member district committee ordered Horace Hunter of Richmond to yank from his [...]

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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is raising the price of admission. Actually, it’s not the 4th circuit, it’s all federal appeals courts. Judges propose to raise the admission fee for applicants to practice in the federal appeals courts from $150 to $176. When the 4th Circuit’s local fee of $20 is added in, [...]

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A federal jury has decided former Virginia Beach lawyer Brian Gay stole about $400,000 from the estate of a deceased client. After Monday’s guilty verdict on nine counts, Norfolk U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson revoked Gay’s bond. The Virginian-Pilot reports Gay was led away in handcuffs. Gay had attempted to justify his use of [...]

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A Suffolk circuit judge has tossed out a couple’s Chinese drywall claims against both a wallboard supplier and the real estate company that sold the damaged home. Judge Rodham T. Delk Jr. found that neither Venture Supply Inc. nor Rose & Womble Realty Company could be liable under the allegations of the lawsuit brought by [...]

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Internet-savvy lawyers are closely watching a Virginia State Bar disciplinary case set for hearing next week involving the right of an attorney to blog about his cases without posting an advertising disclaimer. Richmond lawyer Horace F. Hunter – armed with a brief penned by First Amendment scholar Rodney Smolla – faces a VSB district committee [...]

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The case of North Carolina defendant Torrell Vann has spawned a weighty decision by a fractured 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, released yesterday. After a January 2008 “domestic altercation,” Vann was arrested and charged with handgun possession in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924. The indictment also charged three prior convictions that [...]

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Practically every high school civics class covers the court system and jury duty. It’s one of those important civic responsibilities. If you get a jury duty notice, you go and serve. Not always. About 40 people in Franklin and Southampton counties got their notices and either didn’t show, or failed to return a questionnaire. Circuit [...]

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A self-described “spiritual counselor” has lost her federal-court bid to avoid regulation as a business by Chesterfield County. Patricia Moore-King uses the trade name “Psychic Sophie,” and offers Tarot card readings and psychic and clairvoyant readings, in person, live online, over the telephone and via email. She leases office space in a business complex that [...]

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Resisting calls to bar an anti-Muslim speaker on campus at George Mason University’s law school, Dean Daniel Polsby scored points with free speech advocates with his published comments last week. His statement concluded thus: The law school will not exercise editorial control over the words of speakers invited by student organizations, nor will we take [...]

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(AP) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will be the guest speaker this afternoon when the University of Richmond law school dedicates its moot courtroom in memory of the late U.S. District Judge Robert Merhige Jr. Breyer is expected to talk about the legacy of Merhige, who is best known for ordering the desegregation of [...]

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