The VLW Blog

Former Fairfax County Circuit Judge Burch Millsap died on June 6 of lung disease. He was 85. Born in Missouri, Judge Millsap served in the Army Air Forces during World War II as an airplane mechanic. He graduated from law school at American University in 1950. Judge Millsap was appointed to the court in 1968 [...]

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A Fairfax County jury has returned a $3.2 million verdict for a shopper at the IKEA housewares store in Woodbridge who suffered a crushed pelvis in 2006 when a stack of countertops fell on her. Edward L. Weiner, the plaintiff’s lawyer, said his client incurred $75,000 in medical bills after two surgeries, $50,000 in lost [...]

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Remember when real estate was a different kind of story? Bidding wars. Tear-downs. Money all around. Spring 2007. A woman who wants to sell her mother’s home talks to a real estate agent, who suggests a target price of $729,000 for the Fairfax property. With a “pocket buyer” already in hand, the agent expects to [...]

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What does it take for a dissatisfied divorce client to sue his lawyer? His own opinion may be enough. A husband unhappy with the outcome of his case responded to his lawyer’s bill with a claim for legal malpractice. The lawyer said that without an expert witness, the client had no case. The defendant, James [...]

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Fairfax Circuit Judge Randy Bellows today upheld the constitutionality of a Virginia statute that governs how property rights are determined in a church split, in a case that has pitted the mainline Episcopal Diocese of Virginia against 11 breakaway congregations. In an April 3 decision, Bellows said the division in the church was such that [...]

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Long before there were bloggers, there were preachers in pulpits charged with delivering momentous news. Thus it was on July 17, 1776, that the Executive Council of Massachusetts took action to let colonists know that our nascent nation had severed its ties with England. In order to broadcast the broadside, the council ordered that copies [...]

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A former executive who said she was defamed by her job performance review has come up empty-handed, after winning one of the largest verdicts in 2005. Cynthia Hyland had been with defense contractor Raytheon Corporation for 21 years and served as a senior vice president prior to being fired in 2003 after the business unit [...]

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Virginia’s largest circuit court, Fairfax County, has elected a new chief judge. On July 1, Judge Dennis J. Smith will be taking over from current Chief Judge Michael P. McWeeny, who has served as chief judge for the past six years. An alumnus of Brooklyn College, Smith graduated from American University’s Washington College of Law. [...]

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