The VLW Blog

It’s not automatic that a civil rights challenge to a statute or ordinance is best filed in state court, Virginia Beach lawyer Kevin Martingayle told members of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association Friday. With state court, you might get a better shot at avoiding quick dismissal and skeptical judges, but there are other factors. One [...]

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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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There will be no effort to change the medical malpractice cap in this session of the General Assembly. Representatives of healthcare organizations and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association met with the chairmen of the House and Senate Courts of Justices Committees earlier this week to advise them of the ceasefire. Jack Harris, executive director of [...]

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The Virginia State Bar, the Virginia Bar Association and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association have endorsed candidates for the State Corporation Commission vacancy created by the retirement of Commissioner Theodore V. Morrison Jr. The VSB’s judicial nominations committee told Gov. Timothy M. Kaine that it found four candidates to be highly qualified: – Philip R. [...]

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Andy Block of Charlottesville thinks that too many children accused of crime are getting caught up in the adult justice system, only to be handed juvenile sentences when they emerge from court. Block – a much-honored child advocate – will address the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association this morning at the group’s annual convention at The [...]

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The Virginia Trial Lawyers Association appears likely to get one of its principal legislative objectives for the year. House Bill 172 allows plaintiffs’ attorneys to get the policy limits of a potential defendant before filing suit. The VTLA had to give a little, however. It accepted an amendment that would attorneys must give the insurer [...]

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Roger Creager, outgoing chair of the amicus curiae committee for the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, touted a 75 percent “lifetime win rate” for the association in the 43 appellate cases heard since 1992 in which the VTLA filed a friend-of-the-court brief. In those cases, the majority of which have been in the Supreme Court of [...]

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