The VLW Blog

A circuit court judge appeared skeptical about the plaintiffs’ efforts to overcome sovereign immunity defenses for state officials in the Virginia Tech shooting cases. Franklin County Circuit Judge William Alexander heard arguments Monday on various defenses raised in two $10-million lawsuits filed against state officials and others by the families of two victims of the [...]

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Today’s VLW Daily Alert noted a lawsuit faulting Virginia Tech officials for their response to threats of suicide from a student who ended up taking his own life two years ago. From The Roanoke Times , we now learn the lawsuit ad damnum in the case of Daniel Kim is $43 million.  The lawsuit also [...]

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Virginia Tech says two cases alleging unequal treatment for women are so similar they should be combined for trial. According to The Roanoke Times, both suits allege that women who worked as university fundraisers were harassed or were not paid as much as men who did the same work. The school denies all claims. A [...]

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Virginia Tech has released the mental health records of Seung-Hui Cho with the permission of the killer’s estate and his family.  Cho was evaluated in December 2005 after indicating he was considering suicide, a comment he dismissed as “a joke.” The Richmond Times Dispatch has additional details of the contents of the records. The records [...]

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Interrogatory answers from the clinical psychologist who accidentally removed Seung-Hui Cho’s mental health records from the Virginia Tech counseling center have been released by his attorney. The discovery information from Robert Miller is posted online by The Roanoke Times .  The interrogatories were served pursuant to the lawsuits filed against state officials by families of [...]

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The Society of Professional Journalists is helping the Virginia Tech student newspaper with its legal fight to get information from the West Virginia State Police. The Collegiate Times will receive $1,000 from the society’s legal defense fund to help obtain investigation records relating to the 1998 disappearance of Tech student Robert Kovack, according to The [...]

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The Virginia Tech shooting lawsuits have been assigned to Judge Colin Gibb of Pulaski since the circuit judges of Montgomery County cited conflicts of interest. The families of shooting victims Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson are suing the state, Virginia Tech, and several university and mental health officials reports the Associated Press. Also named is [...]

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The lawyer for the former head of the counseling center where Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho was referred for treatment says Cho’s records were accidentally removed from the unit.  The records surfaced this week, as announced by Gov. Kaine yesterday, but this is the first explanation of why the records had been unavailable until now. [...]

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Reston lawyer Robert T. Hall is the author of the two $10 million wrongful death lawsuits filed against Virginia Tech officials on behalf of families of two victims of the shootings there in 2007.  The lawsuits were filed yesterday, the two-year anniversary of the shootings, in Fairfax County Circuit Court. The lawsuits are posted online [...]

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As reported by the AP, Richmond Circuit Judge Theodore J. Markow approved the state’s settlement with most of the families of those killed in the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech. The ruling today gives judicial approval to resolution of 24 of the 32 death claims. Four other such claims will go before the court at [...]

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