The VLW Blog

Call it a double benchslap. A Virginia Court of Appeals panel Tuesday delivered a scathing opinion that takes both lawyers to task in a bitter and widely publicized divorce case involving a couple with both legal and political connections. The opinion in Griffin v. Griffin again thrusts into public view the protracted divorce proceedings of [...]

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Former Franklin County Sheriff Ewell Hunt was accused in a lawsuit of failing to prevent one of his deputies from gunning down his ex-wife. Now, the ex-wife’s family will get $900,000 from the state to settle the suit on behalf of the former sheriff. Roanoke’s Matt Broughton, who represented the family, said the money will [...]

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A Fairfax County prosecutor received a public admonition yesterday from a Virginia State Bar three-judge discipline panel for allegedly withholding evidence about prosecution witnesses. As The Washington Post reports, the judges rejected license suspension for Fairfax County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Mark Sullivan, but admonished him for allowing two co-defendants to testify they were not offered [...]

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A dispute over public access to evidence in a criminal file must be resolved by the Supreme Court of Virginia, a Court of Appeals panel decided in a split decision. A newspaper reporter is challenging the decision of a Newport News judge to block access to certain evidence in a criminal case. Two members of [...]

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His election to a Richmond judgeship might have been rejected by the House of Delegates, but Tracy Thorne-Begland could get an interim appointment from the city’s circuit judges. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, the six circuit judges in Richmond have the authority to make an interim appointment for the funded-but-unfilled vacancy on the general district [...]

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Certain unnamed Virginia Beach circuit judges are so lenient on drunken driving defendants, lawyers will jockey their cases to try to get those judges, according to an article by WAVY-TV. Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant tells the station certain judges hand out little or no jail time for drunken or drugged drivers. A member of Mothers [...]

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Three lawyers in Virginia have been tapped as Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers. According to Charlottesville lawyer Thomas E. Albro, Virginia state chair, the college recently inducted these individuals: Claire Cardwell, Richmond William E. Glover, Fredericksburg John E. Lichtenstein, Roanoke Albro noted that an invitation to be a Fellow is extended only [...]

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The Virginia Association of Women Judges recently awarded its annual $500 scholarship to Dildora Rakhmatullaeva, a graduating high school senior who wrote an essay about the benefits of women’s full participation in the legislative and judicial branches of government. For her essay to be considered, Rakhmatullaeva was required to interview at least one woman judge [...]

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Sen. J. Chapman Petersen, D-Fairfax, who had been mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate in 2013, took himself out of the running late yesterday. In a lengthy post on Facebook, he explained his reasons. He said he had been getting many inquiries, which he did not discourage. But “[t]o run for public office, a lot [...]

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Court-appointed lawyers could face disappointment on fees for some cases next month. The money for fee cap waivers is running out again. The budget for the fiscal year that ends in June included $4.2 million for extra pay for court-appointed lawyers in time-consuming cases. The Supreme Court had processed $3.7 million for waiver payments as [...]

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