The VLW Blog

The chairmen of the House and Senate Courts of Justice Committee said this afternoon they expect the General Assembly to convene Friday and elect appellate judges. House Courts Chairman Dave Albo, R-Fairfax,  said the Republican caucus will propose the elevation of Virginia Court of Appeals Judges Elizabeth A. McClanahan and Cleo E. Powell to the [...]

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A proposed reduction in the number of circuit judges for Arlington and Alexandria brought out Arlington bar leaders in force last night at a hearing on proposed realignment of the state’s judicial boundaries. Arlington had four circuit judges until earlier this year when Judge Benjamin N.A. Kendrick retired. Judge James F. Almand also has announced [...]

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Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert and an assistant came in for scathing criticism Tuesday as a Norfolk federal judge overturned the death sentence of a man convicted in a 2002 drug-related killing. U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson accused Ebert and assistant Richard Conway of “stifling” a search for truth by supporting the [...]

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The committee studying the alignment of Virginia’s judicial circuits and districts unveiled two proposals last night in Abingdon at the first of six hearings across the state. One would create 27 circuits from the 31 existing circuits. The other would keep the current 31 circuits but create an overlay of 11 regions to manage the [...]

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A memorial service for Richard H. Poff, a retired justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, will be held tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Woody Funeral Home Huguenot Chapel, 1020 Huguenot Road, Midlothian. Burial will take place Thursday at Sunset Cemetery in Christiansburg. Justice Poff died June 28 in Tullahoma, Tenn. He was a longtime [...]

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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, [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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