The VLW Blog

A Roanoke federal judge has ordered the Pittsylvania County supervisors to halt the routine use of Christian prayers to open their meetings.
U.S. District Judge Michael F. Urbanski held Friday that none of the arguments in favor of the county board’s prayer policy “has any merit.”
Concluding that a citizen who challenged the prayers was likely to [...]

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Roanoke lawyer Robert S. Ballou has been selected as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Virginia to replace Michael Urbanski, who was recently elevated to the district court bench.
Ballou is a partner with the Roanoke firm of Johnson, Ayers & Matthews. He served for eight years on the Virginia State Bar’s Special [...]

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Yesterday a Harrisonburg U.S. District Court approved a $9.95 million settlement in a consumer protection class action against Bank of America under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
U.S. District Court Samuel G. Wilson also approved over $1.8 million in attorney’s fees and costs to the attorneys for the plaintiff class, led by Newport News [...]

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Danville U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser has ordered a new trial for a Martinsville contractor’s claims of racial discrimination, based in part on post-trial evidence that undermined testimony about the company’s damages. The decision undoes a jury’s $3.17-million award against the Danville housing authority in February.
At trial, the owner of the plaintiff grading contractor testified [...]

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U.S. District Judge James Jones minced no words denying lawyer John Flannery’s claim that the judge had secret meetings with prosecutors in the Paul Thomson cocaine case.  “Mr. Flannery’s assertion is outrageously false and unfounded,” Jones wrote in an order Thursday.
Flannery – who is defending the Winchester lawyer accused of buying cocaine from a client [...]

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Complaints are plentiful about the 35-year-old Richard H. Poff Federal Building in Roanoke, but workers at the federal courts are not looking forward to a planned $51-million renovation project.
At a Thursday hearing, Congressional critics grilled a General Services Agency official about whether the project was improvidently planned.
Court Clerk Julia Dudley had a different perspective. Once [...]

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A federal judge has denied a motion to dismiss civil claims against a police officer involved in a Saltville incident that started with a speeding ticket and ended with a whole family going to jail.
U.S. District Judge James P. Jones ruled the case can proceed against the officer who arrested Larry Jackson for refusing an [...]

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Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, reports no movement in his effort to derail a $51-million renovation project at the federal building in Roanoke, headquarters of the Western District federal courts.
Goodlatte, who has criticized the project as wasteful and ill-planned, told Roanoke lawyers he met recently with two of the federal judges who work at the Poff [...]

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Roanoke U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad is now chief judge for the Western District of Virginia. A federal statute required the change when Judge James Jones reached the age of 70 this year.
Conrad ascended to the chief judge’s post in time to preside over the traditional Monticello naturalization ceremony on July 4, according to an [...]

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Terming a $51-million renovation plan for Roanoke’s Poff Federal Building a “waste of taxpayer dollars,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, calls for a halt to the project.
The building is home to the U.S. District Court facilities in Roanoke, where the Chief Judge says security is a concern. Goodlatte complains the General Services Administration refused a request [...]

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