The VLW Blog

The Citizens Advisory Committee for the Albemarle-Charlottesville Public Defender Office will present the 2013 Clarence Earl Gideon Award to Charlottesville Circuit Judge Edward Hogshire. The award will be presented for the first time in 2013, in the 50th anniversary year of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright, finding that [...]

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A judge will routinely thank a petit jury for its service. Now, a Norfolk judge has gone on record with his gratitude to a special grand jury at the end of their months-long term. Last March 14, the Norfolk Circuit Court convened a special grand jury to investigate possible criminal activity within the Norfolk Community [...]

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What’s your lawsuit about? It should be easier to tell with the new cover sheet published by the Supreme Court of Virginia. Attorneys filing circuit court civil actions are asked to use the new cover sheet form available at the court’s website. The court modified the uniform cover sheet at the behest of the 2012 [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia has refused to block the dissolution of a family-controlled company that runs a profitable kyanite mine in Buckingham County. In a terse order dated Tuesday, the court denied the motion by The Disthene Group Inc. for a stay of the dissolution order pending an appeal of the trial court’s decision. [...]

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A 67-year-old family-owned mining business could be broken up and parceled out under a judge’s “drastic” remedy for the company’s oppression of minority shareholders. Fairfax County Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush concluded the Disthene Group Inc. – which owns a profitable Kyanite mine in Buckingham County – is controlled by a domineering shareholder who is [...]

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A trial court turned the tables on a mother who claimed a father violated a protective order, and jailed the mother for lying to the court. The father foiled the mother’s attempt to have him punished by secretly videotaping his pickup of their child for visitation. The mother landed in jail for contempt after an [...]

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A former hotel valet parking attendant who struck and killed a pedestrian on a downtown Richmond sidewalk will spend a year in jail. Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley B. Cavedo sentenced Paul Gray Jr. to five years with four suspended for the involuntary manslaughter of 23-year-old Josephine Stone, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. The accident occurred as [...]

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A Botetourt County man was jailed without bond after refusing to comply with a judge’s order to respond to a deposition question in a civil suit. Danny H. Goad was charged with contempt of court after a hearing Thursday in Botetourt County Circuit Court. According to The Roanoke Times, Goad refused to comply with Circuit [...]

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Amelia County Commonwealth’s Attorney Lee Harrison was injured along with two others when a criminal defendant became violent at the Amelia County courthouse Thursday. Harrison came to the aid of a sheriff’s deputy who was attacked by an accused burglar, according to a news release from the county sheriff’s office. Harrison was taken to a [...]

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A Norfolk city agency cannot collect contract damages against the supervisor of a “no-show” employee for the money the agency paid the absent employee, a Norfolk Circuit Court says. Virginia contract law does not provide a basis to hold a public employee liable for agency mismanagement, the court said. The Norfolk Community Services Board filed [...]

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