The VLW Blog

The 4th Circuit has set aside a $10 million punitive damage award in a race discrimination case that was the largest verdict reported in 2008 in Virginia Lawyers Weekly.
In its Feb. 12 decision in Worldwide Network Services LLC v. DynCorp Internat’l LLC, the appellate panel upheld the jury award of $5 million in compensatory damages [...]

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Ruling that communications to others urging the death of a civil rights lawyer could not be considered a “true threat,” a Roanoke federal judge has dismissed one of the convictions of neo-Nazi William A. White. Three other convictions of threats or intimidation were upheld by Senior U.S. District Judge James C. Turk.
White, a Roanoke landlord [...]

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U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad has denied motions to dismiss excessive force and conspiracy claims filed by a former jail inmate who claims he was injured by guards at the Roanoke jail.
Relying on the touchstone cases of Twombly and Iqbal , Roanoke Sheriff Octavia Johnson argued DaVon Bell’s complaint about a pervasive pattern of excessive [...]

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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has just made it a bit easier for inmates hoping to score with civil litigation to stay at the plate for a few more pitches.
The court has loosened the 1996 “three strikes rule.”
Under that rule, if a prisoner swings and misses in federal court three times, he may [...]

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A man who won reversal of a rape conviction due to police misconduct has won the right to try his civil rights case against the officers.
Acting without a lawyer, Engram Bellamy of Waynesboro sued the officers who secretly recorded his incriminating comments while he was hospitalized for an asthma attack.  At the time, Bellamy [...]

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Veterans of the civil rights battles of Virginia recalled the fight as they honored the memory of attorney Oliver W. Hill on the sunny front lawn of Hill’s boyhood home this afternoon.
The house in Roanoke’s Gainsboro community, renovated through the efforts of Hill’s admirers who founded the Oliver White Hill Foundation, will house a legal [...]

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The Virginia Organizing Project is working to restore voting rights for felons who have served their time, according to the C-Ville Weekly.  One of the activists pushing for legislative reform says, under current law, an application for restoration of civil rights can be derailed by a simple speeding ticket.
Posted by Peter Vieth

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Sparked by two recent accounts of intimidation, some Shenandoah Valley legislators are considering whether the display of a hangman’s noose should be categorized as a hate crime in the Virginia code.
According to this account in the Daily News Record, most Harrisonburg-area lawmakers would favor the change.
The paper reports that the EEOC is looking into complaints [...]

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Williams Mullen partner Robert C. Nusbaum of Norfolk was honored this week for 60 years of service to his clients.
As reported by The Virginian-Pilot, his colleagues showered the 84-year-old Nusbaum with accolades.
“He’s unwavering,” said Howard Gordon, a partner who has worked with Nusbaum for 35 years. “When he takes a position or gets involved in [...]

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When a liquor license is granted, the bar or restaurant agrees to let ABC agents come on the premises to inspect for violations.
But apparently something else was going on June 2, 2004, when a police narcotics task force in Manassas Park invaded the Rack ‘N’ Roll Billiard Club with over 50 officers.
According to the [...]

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