The VLW Blog

A spreadsheet prepared for House and Senate budget conferees shows how they went about deciding which judicial vacancies to fill.
The table compares the caseload of judges in circuits and districts with the average caseload per judge. With one exception, only those with a caseload 25 percent higher than the state average got a judgeship.
The exception: [...]

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The General Assembly recessed tonight until April 4 after approving a budget that includes money to fill 21 judgeships that the legislature froze in its 2010 session.
The legislature also rejected the proposal of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell that it take $5 million from the reserve fund of the Virginia State Bar and agreed to provide [...]

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The 2,145-member Fairfax Bar Association has chimed in with the pleas for filling Virginia judicial vacancies.
An FBA resolution this week urges General Assembly members to fully fund all vacant judgeships and to reject the governor’s plan to use $5 million from the State Bar Fund for general spending purposes.
Unfilled judgeships “are creating undue hardships that [...]

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The Alexandria Bar Association adds its voice to the clamor over the legislative proposal to realign Virginia’s judicial districts and circuits with a two-page resolution adopted last week.
Merging the circuits for Alexandria and Arlington County would cause an undue hardship, the resolution states. “[T]he residents of Alexandria and Arlington have unique and diverse needs and [...]

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While everyone else talks about the Janis-Edwards plan for redrawing Virginia’s judicial districts and circuits, Ken Lammers of Wise got busy with a Sharpie and sketched out his own idea for grouping the courts.
Lammers, who authors the CrimLaw blog, determined to have no more than five and no fewer than three political subdivisions per circuit. [...]

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Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax County, says the Virginia State Bar overstepped its mission in lobbying the legislature for more judicial spending.
Albo, chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee, views the plan by Gov. Bob McDonnell to use the VSB’s $5-million cash reserves for general spending as a rebuff to the VSB’s advocacy for restoring [...]

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Alexandria Bankruptcy Judge Stephen S. Mitchell is retiring in August, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is seeking applications for his successor.
Mitchell, 65, was appointed to the bankruptcy court in December 1994 after practicing law for 15 years in Alexandria with the general practice firm of McKinley, Schmidtlein & Mitchell.
After graduating from the [...]

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Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed two budget amendments today that will affect the judiciary’s budget.
He suggests $1.7 million for what he described as “longstanding priority judicial vacancies” and an additional $5.4 million to the criminal fund to help pay the cost of representing indigent defendants.
The amount allocated for judicial vacancies would cover the salary and benefits [...]

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Three lawyers and a district court judge have expressed interest in a circuit court seat in Accomack County.
Last month, the Eastern Shore Bar Association endorsed longtime Accomack attorney W. Revell Lewis III, according to the Eastern Shore News. Accomack lawyers Thomas Northam and Thomas B. Dix Jr. have also expressed interest in the judgeship, along [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia will set aside $432,000 to pay for judges to fill vacancies created by state budget cuts.
Beginning July 1, state officials will provide this funding to Virginia’s 18 district and circuit court systems affected by a state-mandated hiring freeze, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The money will be used to to hire [...]

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