The VLW Blog

The Virginia Court of Appeals today upheld a Fairfax circuit judge’s decision that it had no authority to vacate a guilty finding for a drug defendant, suspend sentencing and allow for a final disposition that would avoid a conviction.
Brandon P. Epps pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled drug in violation of Va. Code § [...]

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In what appears to be the final trial court chapter of a tangled legal saga in Charlottesville, the judge has imposed $542,000 in sanctions against attorney Matt Murray for hiding evidence and trying to deflect blame for lapses in his disclosures to the court.
In addition to the sanctions against Murray, Judge Edward Hogshire ordered Murray’s [...]

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Richmond lawyer Jamie Barber has been recognized as the Pro Bono Clearinghouse Volunteer of 2011 by the Greater Richmond Bar Foundation.
Barber, a corporate finance associate at Hunton & Williams, has handled 11 different matters for the bar foundation since 2006. Barber provided more than 28 hours in pro bono work during the past year, working [...]

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An employee for a pest-control company who went to work for a competitor need not worry about that noncompete he signed some time ago. Today a divided Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed dismissal of the company’s suit to enforce the noncompete.
The take-away tip for lawyers drafting noncompetes: Make sure to match the activities you want [...]

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We’ve heard of couples renewing their vows, but this proposal takes the wedding cake.
According to today’s New York Times, Todd J. Remis wants to recreate his 2003 wedding to Milena Grzibovska because the photographer, H & H Studio, failed to capture the “last dance and the bouquet toss.”
Remis has sued the photographer for the [...]

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Virginia Lawyers Weekly has the names of the 1,156 successful candidates who sat for the Virginia bar examination in July 2011.
The list includes a section for exam-takers who passed but are not being licensed at this time due to outstanding requirements.
The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners reports that 1,513 applicants took the exam this past [...]

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Practically every high school civics class covers the court system and jury duty. It’s one of those important civic responsibilities. If you get a jury duty notice, you go and serve.
Not always. About 40 people in Franklin and Southampton counties got their notices and either didn’t show, or failed to return a questionnaire.
Circuit Judge [...]

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A self-proclaimed Virginia Code “fan boy,” Waldo Jaquith wants to bring the Code to the masses with his “Virginia Decoded” project.
Jaquith, whose five-year-old website “Richmond Sunlight” focuses on the sausage-making at the General Assembly, says he will showcase the finished product in his new project.
Jaquith wants to make the Virginia Code more user-friendly, [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia today unanimously turned away the appeal of Navy Seal trainee Dustin Turner, who sought a writ of actual innocence after a codefendant confessed to the murder of a young woman the two had met in a Virginia Beach nightclub in 1995.
The high court found conflicts in the codefendant’s recantation testimony, [...]

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A defendant who spoke no English and relied on a telephone translation to explain the felony charges against him has been allowed to withdraw his guilty plea.
Harrisonburg U.S. District Court Judge Michael F. Urbanski allowed Raul Tronco-Ramirez to withdraw his guilty plea to gun and drug charges after reviewing a transcript that revealed “numerous [...]

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