The VLW Blog

The DEA is not waiting for the legislative process to take action against synthetic marijuana. While legislators in Virginia and around the country have been drafting bills to ban the chemical pot, sold legally under names like “Spice” and “K-2,” the DEA announced Wednesday it’s using its emergency scheduling authority to “temporarily control” five chemical [...]

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A federal judge in Los Angeles has slashed McGuireWoods’ attorneys fees from $12 million to $500,000 in an antitrust case against West Publishing Corp., citing an “egregious breach of ethical duties.” The class action suit, filed by consumers who were allegedly overcharged for the BAR/BRI exam review course, settled for $49 million in 2007. According [...]

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A second panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today upheld a special master’s finding that there is no connection between autism and a mercury-based preservative in the measles-mumps rubella vaccine. The first panel issued its opinion in May. Judge Pauline Newman was the only judge on both panels, but she was [...]

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A Norfolk federal judge has dismissed piracy charges against a band of Somalis accused of trying to board and rob a U.S. Navy ship. The defense attack on the piracy counts called for interpretation of a U.S. statute that had not been applied since the days of Blackbeard. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the [...]

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U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer affirmed yesterday a $19.3 million intellectual property verdict for the manufacturer of a computer keyboard support system. The lawsuit pitted CompX International Inc. and its subsidiary, Waterloo Furniture Components Limited, and Humanscale Corp., the two largest companies in the field of ergonomic office products. The case started as a [...]

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Just as boilerplate complaints will no longer work in federal court, formulaic affirmative defenses may be on the way out as well. Two magistrate judges in Virginia, one in the Eastern District and the other in the Western District, ruled recently that the pleading standards set by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic v. [...]

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Roanoke County Sheriff Gerald Holt was today nominated by President Obama for U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Virginia.  Holt has been sheriff since 1992.  He announced his retirement last month. By Peter Vieth

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U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Friedman of Norfolk will take senior status Nov. 30, The Virginian-Pilot is reporting. Friedman has been on the federal bench since 1997. He was a Virginia Beach circuit judge when President Clinton tapped him for the seat. The judge told the Pilot that he had notified the White House and [...]

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Justice comes with a big price tag for a group of ex-military types who sold 10 million gallons of U.S. fuel on the black market in Iraq. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton imposed a four-year sentence and a $66,500 forfeiture Friday for a former Navy officer convicted of helping to steal the fuel from a [...]

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The judges of the Western District of Virginia are inviting comments on the first-ever set of local rules proposed for federal courts in those parts. Among other things, the proposed rules would require attorneys’ fee requests to be filed within 14 days after judgment.  Judges would be authorized to impose jury costs when a case [...]

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