The VLW Blog

As the year draws to a close, two Virginia judges (and one former judge) have announced career changes for 2010:
Petersburg J&DR Judge James Hume plans to trade the bench for the pulpit after he steps down this month. A 2006 graduate of the Virginia Union University School of Theology, Judge Hume plans to focus full-time [...]

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The U.S. Senate voted this evening to confirm President Obama’s nomination of U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis to a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Davis, a judge on the U.S. District Court of Baltimore, will take the seat that has been vacant since the 2000 death of Judge Francis D. Murnaghan Jr.
After [...]

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The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today unanimously approved the nomination of Virginia Supreme Court Justice Barbara Keenan for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Keenan is President Obama’s second nominee for the 4th Circuit, where five seats remain open on the bench.  The nomination of U.S. District Judge Andre Davis of Maryland remains pending in [...]

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At least one judge welcomes objections that bring to mind a long forgotten paean to a brand of cheap beer.
The judge is Roanoke’s Cliff Weckstein and the beer is Ballantine.
As several dozen lawyers listened, Weckstein today described the ideal trial objection: “Precisely right and crystally clear.”  As Weckstein noted, the phrase comes from a decades-old [...]

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ABINGDON–Virginia Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr., speaking at a “town hall” meeting in Southwest Virginia, pronounced an obituary for the state’s controversial judicial performance evaluation program.
“It’s dead – that’s about the nicest way I can say it,” Hassell said. “That program will not exist for quite some time, I believe, because of the [...]

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General District Judge Norman deVere “Dev” Morrison retired yesterday after 24 years on the bench.
Before his judicial appointment in 1985, Judge Morrison served as the Berryville town attorney and as a substitute judge. During his career, he has sat in every court in the 26th Judicial Circuit, but mainly ruled over cases in Clarke and [...]

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Amy Tisinger was sworn in yesterday as the first female judge on the general district bench in Shenandoah County.
She replaces Judge Norman Morrison, who is retiring, reports the Northern Virginia Daily.
For the past 10 years, Tisinger has been a prosecutor with the commonwealth’s attorney’s office, and spent four years working for William B. Allen III [...]

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Virginia’s Eastern District Bankruptcy Court should convert its temporary judgeship to a permanent slot, according to testimony this week before a House subcommittee.
The Eastern District would have six permanent bankruptcy judgeships if Congress approves conversion of a temporary judgeship set to expire in 2011, according to Judge Barbara Lynn, chair of the Judicial Conference [...]

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The Daily Press reports more than 400 people crowded the Hampton courthouse for a ceremonial swearing in for new Circuit Judge Bonnie L. Jones.

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Gov. Tim Kaine elevated two lower court judges today to fill circuit seats in Southside and in Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights.
Kaine appointed Chesterfield J&DR Judge Harold W. Burgess Jr. to replace Judge Cleo E. Powell, who was named to the Virginia Court of Appeals, and General District Judge Judge Joel C. Cunningham to replace [...]

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