The VLW Blog

A divided 4th Circuit panel has upheld a $1.7 million malicious prosecution award to a night dock supervisor accused of stealing computers from a loading dock of a Colonial Heights shipping company. The award from a jury in Richmond federal court to Clyde L. Bennett was one of VLW’s top verdicts for 2009. Senior U.S. [...]

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A Chesterfield attorney narrowly escaped serious injury Thursday afternoon when a gunman fired a shot at him at his law office across from the Chesterfield County courthouse. David G. DeFazio said he was in the parking lot of the Barnes & Diehl law firm when he saw a man he had opposed in a court [...]

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Can you count on people to do the right thing when no one’s looking? Not necessarily, according to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Earlier this week, a 4th Circuit panel vacated an Army Corps of Engineers   permit that would have let a developer build a mooring facility and concrete boat ramp near Virginia [...]

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Virginia Beach lawyer Kevin Martingayle – a candidate for Virginia State Bar president-elect – has announced he and partner William Bischoff are launching their own firm at the end of the month. Bischoff, Martingayle is set to debut July 2, Martingayle told members of the VSB Executive Committee last week. Martingayle said the move from [...]

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Circuit Judge William Alexander has denied the state’s motion to overturn jury verdicts in favor of families of students killed in the Virginia Tech shootings, but he reduced the two $4-million awards to just $100,000 each under the Virginia Tort Claims Act. The Roanoke Times reports Alexander announced his decisions after a post-trial hearing Wednesday [...]

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Sobering new statistics illustrate the difficulty of turning a law degree into a full time practice position, unless your degree comes from a top tier law school. The American Bar Association has – for the first time – provided numbers for full-time, long-term legal jobs landed by recent grads. Nationally, only 55 percent of the [...]

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Teresa Chafin is now on the Court of Appeals of Virginia. The former Tazewell County circuit judge was sworn in as a Court of Appeals judge Monday, according to court clerk Cynthia L. McCoy. The date and place of her formal investiture have not yet been determined, McCoy said. The vacancy on the 29th Circuit [...]

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After rejection by the House of Delegates, Richmond prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland has been appointed to a general district judgeship by the judges of the circuit court. The decision comes in the wake of signs that General Assembly opposition to appointment of the openly gay attorney might be weakening. A delegate who voted against Thorne-Begland switched [...]

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Someone didn’t get the memo. The commonwealth forfeited its right to appeal a suppression order when it styled its appellate claims as “Questions Presented” instead of “Assignments of Error.” The appellant had hit the preliminary marks: Timely notice of appeal? Check. Transcript of suppression hearing filed? Check. Petition timely filed? Check. But the original petition [...]

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Still wary after a 2010 bid by Gov. Bob McDonnell to bring the Virginia State Bar bank account into the state general fund budget, bar leaders are talking about renaming the VSB’s “Reserve Fund” as the “Trust Fund” to make it clear it is not taxpayer money.  Budget chair Alan Anderson advised bar leaders they [...]

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