The VLW Blog

The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners has released the names of the 1,136 applicants who passed the July 2012  bar 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 July 2012 pass rates for all applicants and for law [...]

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It sounds like a fight between Founding Fathers: Patrick Henry versus James Monroe in the Richmond County courthouse. Actually, that’s lawyer Patrick C. Henry II of Richmond squaring off against lawyer James Monroe of Warsaw in a lawsuit over Monroe’s legal fee for a juvenile defendant. As VLW reports, a Hanover County judge has overruled [...]

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A defendant’s firearm conviction is reversed because testimony of a Quizno’s employee showed only that he had “something” under his shirt.  Defendant Donte Devan Mitchell walked into the restaurant and asked for a job application. He left when he was told the store was out of application forms. A short time later, he walked back [...]

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Former Del. Bill Cleaveland of Troutville has been appointed judge of the general district court for the 25th District. His appointment last month by the circuit judges was effective last Wednesday, according to the office of Chief Judge Malfourd W. “Bo” Trumbo. Cleaveland succeeds Judge Louis K. “Kerry” Campbell, who retired in August. Despite a [...]

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HOT SPRINGS – Trial judges need to do their share to prevent rude and unprofessional conduct among lawyers, according to a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Justice Donald W. Lemons said trial judges actually contribute to incivility when they offer only mild admonishment in the face of bad lawyer behavior. Speaking at a [...]

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Here’s one way to keep the populace happy: Don’t have them jump into a federal jury pool when they likely will not have to serve. That “juror utilization” metric is something court administrators track, and the Federal Judicial Center has announced that Virginia’s Western District was one of five federal courts that improved its juror [...]

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ROANOKE – Increasing money for both legal aid and for the judiciary are two key items on the Virginia Bar Association’s agenda for the 2013 General Assembly session. VBA president Hugh M. Fain said reforming Virginia’s actual innocence law also ranks high among the VBA’s legislative goals. Speaking to the Roanoke Bar Association Tuesday, Fain [...]

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Lawyers and judges again will fan out to more than 60 middle school civics classes in the Roanoke Valley this month with a message about the central role of law in a constitutional democracy. The annual Rule of Law Day is Monday, Oct. 22 in the schools of Roanoke City, Salem and Roanoke County. Volunteers [...]

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Insurance policies on a lender’s interest in leased trucks provided coverage for a fire loss even when the primary insured was responsible for the fire, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said today in a case appealed from Alexandria federal court. In April and May 2008, Wells Fargo Equipment Finance Inc. loaned RODO Inc. [...]

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Federal and state government lawyers are trumpeting the formal resolution of a $1.6-billion case against pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories Inc. for off-label marketing of its anti-seizure drug Depakote. A federal judge in Abingdon approved a criminal sentence for Abbott today. Various states and the federal government charged Abbott with illegally promoting the use of Depakote [...]

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