The VLW Blog

Megan Frederick has been under fire since winning a close election last fall as Culpeper County commonwealth’s attorney. She was seen by some local attorneys as an outsider who displaced a long-serving local prosecutor. She reported security breaches in her office, including a menacing note taped to a door. She began carrying a handgun on [...]

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A Louisa woman gets another chance at a false arrest claim against a police officer who entered her home after her ex-husband requested a check on their 11-year-old daughter. The officer arrested the woman for battery, but Virginia law allows corporal punishment and the officer could not automatically assume that any touching of the child [...]

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Federal appeals court judges – and one former U.S. Supreme Court justice – are dining with Gov. Bob McDonnell this evening. McDonnell is hosting a reception and dinner for the judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in honor of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. O’Connor is sitting with the [...]

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Judges would lose a troublesome hurdle to entering their own pretrial scheduling orders under a rule change up for comment at the Supreme Court of Virginia. The court’s rules advisory committee is requesting comments from the public, the bench and the bar on proposed revisions to Rule 1:18 governing pretrial scheduling orders in civil cases. [...]

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The former dean of two Virginia law schools, Rod Smolla has given up his latest post as president of South Carolina’s Furman University, citing family concerns. Smolla, who served as dean of both Washington & Lee law school and the University of Richmond law school, announced this week he would step down as Furman president. [...]

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The Roanoke Bar Association has awarded the 2013 Frank W. “Bo” Rogers Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award to attorney Richard C. Rakes of Roanoke. The award was presented at the RBA’s Law Day ceremony May 2. Rakes, who retired in 1991 after 40 years with Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, is one of the firm’s founders [...]

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Virginia’s U.S. senators have asked the Virginia State Bar to evaluate candidates for the U.S. district court seat to be vacated when Judge James R. Spencer of Richmond takes senior status next year. Spencer has announced he will become a senior judge on March 25 next year. The request for evaluations from Sens. Mark R. [...]

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A federal appeals court has allowed oral argument time for a Facebook lawyer when it hears the appeal of a controversial Virginia free speech ruling next week. Norfolk federal judge Raymond Jackson decided there was no constitutional violation when a sheriff fired one of his deputies allegedly for clicking the “Like” button on the Facebook [...]

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Did the 2013 General Assembly make everyone happy, or nobody happy? It might depend on which bill you are talking about. State Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, told lawyers in Salem Tuesday the centerpiece of the session, the transportation bill, has “something for everyone to hate.” Most prominent on the negativity scale is the sales tax [...]

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A divorce court could not ignore a couple’s prenuptial agreement and allow a wife to recoup her $135,000 contribution to building the marital home, the Virginia Court of Appeals said on May 7. The panel reversed an award to the wife in Tsoucalas v. Markopoulos (VLW 013-7-140(UP)). When the couple met, George Tsoucalas was already [...]

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