The VLW Blog

Justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia, led by Chief Justice Cynthia D. Kinser (center), added mulch to the newly planted Forever Tree, a maple, in memory of Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. in Capitol Square. Funds for the tree came from the Virginia Bar Association, the Senior Lawyers Conference of the Virginia State [...]

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The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners has released the names of the 294 applicants who passed the February 2012  exam. The list includes a section for exam-takers who passed but are not being licensed at this time due to outstanding requirements. Below are the February 2012 pass rates for all applicants and for law schools [...]

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James Madison University has settled the lawsuit that accused the school of raiding basketball recruits from a New York college after JMU hired that school’s coach. JMU will pay $100,000 to Marist College under terms of the settlement, reports the Poughkeepsie Journal. Marist sued both JMU and basketball coach Matt Brady in 2009, accusing Brady [...]

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A prosecutor may have to make an earlier disclosure of exculpatory evidence under Virginia ethics rules than is required under the Brady standard, under a new draft legal ethics opinion. The Virginia State Bar is seeking comment on draft LEO 1862, which covers a controversial topic for criminal defense lawyers: What is a “timely disclosure” [...]

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A juror’s use of Wikipedia to research an element of a criminal offense violated a defendant’s right to a fair trial on illegal “cockfighting” charges, and the defendant should be retried, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said on April 20. Defendant Scott Lawson and others were charged with violating a federal animal fighting [...]

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Veteran Roanoke lawyer William B. Poff has been honored with the Roger D. Groot Professionalism Award from the Ted Dalton American Inn of Court in Salem. Poff was president of the Virginia State Bar in 1981-82 and is a Master in the American Inns of Court. Poff has been a “role model for lawyers all [...]

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A Virginia father can seek damages from adoption lawyers and a Utah couple who adopted his child without his permission, a divided Supreme Court of Virginia said on April 20. A tort claim for “tortious interference with parental rights” is part of Virginia common law, the court said. According to the father’s complaint, the mother [...]

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Virginia Lawyers Weekly received two first-place awards from the Virginia Press Association this past weekend, when the VPA announced the 2011 winners of its annual journalism contest. VLW gained top honors in the categories of editorial writing and headline writing. Paul Fletcher, the paper’s publisher and editor-in-chief, received both awards. The editorial entry consisted of [...]

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Trent S. Kerns has been elected president of the law firm of Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen. He joins Edward L. Allen and Jason W. Konvicka as the members of the firm’s executive committee. Kerns, who joined Allen & Allen in 1992, manages the firm’s Chesterfield office. He is one of the firm’s 14 partners [...]

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The House of Delegates Wednesday squelched a legislative effort to help injured workers who cannot recall the circumstances of their accident. The House rejected a proposal by Gov. Bob McDonnell to clarify that a presumption in favor of coverage applies when a workers’ compensation claimant has no memory of the accident, even if he can [...]

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