The VLW Blog

Virginia State Bar President Irving M. Blank told the agency’s executive committee today that he expects statewide bar groups and the Supreme Court of Virginia to revisit the issue of payee notification soon.
The concept, which has insurers notify the clients of personal injury lawyers when they send the lawyers settlement checks, “is still alive, and [...]

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W. Carrington Thompson, a former delegate, senator, circuit judge and justice of the Supreme court of Virginia, died Saturday at his home in Chatham. He was 95.
Justice Thompson was appointed to the court in 1980 at age 64. He resigned three years later citing personal reasons. He told the Richmond Times-Dispatch when he resigned that [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia’s Advisory Committee on Rules of Court is seeking comment on a proposed Part 9 of the rules that would establish procedures for involuntary commitment proceedings.
The committee also wants comment on civil procedure recommendations from the Boyd-Graves Conference on objections during depositions and on voir dire in civil cases.
The proposed Part [...]

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Retired Supreme Court of Virginia Justice Roscoe B. Stephenson Jr. died last night in Covington. He was 89.
Justice Stephenson served on the court from 1981 until 1997 and was active as a senior justice until 2009.
A native of Covington, earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Washington and Lee University and began practicing law there [...]

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Sen. Henry L. Marsh III suggested today that a series of hearings this summer on a proposal to realign the state’s judicial circuits and districts might not be wise politically.
“You can have too much democracy,” he said at a meeting of the Committee on District Courts, one of the judiciary’s two top policy-making bodies. As [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia has accepted a proposal by a joint task force of the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Bar Association that will make it easier for corporate counsel who are not licensed in Virginia to provide pro bono services.
Corporate counsel now can provide such services only in programs operated and controlled [...]

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Chief Justice Cynthia D. Kinser has appointed Loudoun Circuit Judge Thomas D. Horne as chairman of the 22-member committee to study realignment of the state’s judicial circuits and districts.
The committee includes Virginia Court of Appeals Chief Judge Walter S. Felton Jr.; eight circuit judges; six general district or J&DR judges; a circuit, a J&DR and [...]

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A bill that attempts to take away the inherent authority the Supreme Court of Virginia says state judges have to defer and dismiss criminal charges cleared the House of Delegates today on a 76-22 vote.
House Bill 2513, patroned by Del. C. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock and supported by prosecutors and a host of law enforcement organizations, [...]

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A Loudoun County general district judge has refused to abide by the high court’s ruling against reopening cases of immigrants who face deportation from criminal convictions.
The judge determined to reopen an old case to reconsider the guilty plea of an immigrant who now faces deportation, despite a recent Supreme Court ruling that would leave the [...]

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The House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance Committee are polar opposites on the issue of thawing the freeze on filling judicial vacancies.
The Senate committee recommended spending $4.8 million, which would be enough to fill all the vacancies. Not a dime for that purpose under the House committee’s budget.
The House panel would restore all of [...]

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