The VLW Blog

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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A Blacksburg hookah lounge has won a second look from the Virginia Court of Appeals in its battle to avoid the state’s restaurant no-smoking law. The “She-Sha Café and Hookah Lounge” offers customers the traditional middle eastern experience of smoking flavored tobacco in hookah pipes. She-Sha also offers food, however. According to the state Health [...]

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Two Hampton Roads songwriters say their work has been infringed by pop stars Justin Bieber and Usher. Represented by Norfolk intellectual property lawyer Duncan Byers, the plaintiffs are asking for $10 million in a suit filed in Norfolk federal court. Devin Copeland – who performs as “De Rico” – and Mareio Overton claim they composed [...]

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As a U.S. district judge, Glen M. Williams helped get the federal courthouse in Big Stone Gap reopened in 1978. Now, the courthouse will be the setting for a ceremony next week in memory of Judge Williams who died Nov. 4 at age 92. Judge Williams retired in 2010 after 47 years with the federal [...]

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A school superintendent who refused to release a student’s school records to police investigating a threat of school violence was within her rights under federal law, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has ruled. In an official opinion, Cuccinelli said the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act authorized the school chief to deny access to a pupil’s [...]

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A week after airing differences over the way Virginia picks its judges, two legislators are back with their rebuttal arguments in Sunday’s Roanoke Times. Dels. Ben Cline, R-Lexington, and Creigh Deeds, D-Hot Springs, clash over whether a bi-partisan commission should be involved in screening candidates for the bench. Currently, judges are elected by the General [...]

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WASHINGTON – A group of small businesses has filed a lawsuit challenging a rule imposed by the Internal Revenue Service under the federal health care law, alleging the agency exceeded its authority by expanding the law’s employer mandate. Business owners in Virginia and five other states claim the IRS rule places burdens on small businesses [...]

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In the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre in Connecticut, applications for concealed weapons permits in Virginia have more than doubled in the first three months of the year, according to caseload figures from the Supreme Court of Virginia. The number of applications went from 21,732 for the three-month period last year to 48,943 [...]

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A divorce decree that called for a father to continue paying part of his son’s health care coverage until the son was “no longer an eligible dependent” meant the father had to pay past the son’s 18th birthday, the Virginia Court of Appeals said on April 30. The parties’ agreement, incorporated in the divorce decree, [...]

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