The VLW Blog

The Virginia State Bar is pursuing ethics charges against a prosecutor and her former assistant who are accused of coaching a witness in a 1997 death penalty case. The decision to refer the matter to VSB’s disciplinary board could quiet claims that bar ethics investigators have turned a blind eye to alleged misconduct by prosecutors.

The Virginia Gazette reports York County Commonwealth Attorney Eileen Addison and Newport News attorney Cathy Krinick have been notified of charges including “engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.”

In 2008, a circuit court judge commuted Daryl Atkins’ death sentence to life in prison after hearing evidence of the alleged witness coaching prior to his capital murder trial.

By Peter Vieth

Virginia officials are forming a state task force to advise the federal government what to do about defective Chinese drywall that has sickened residents and ruined homes in the Tidewater area.

The announcement comes today from Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Jim Cheng, who met with affected residents in early February. He said he has been working with relevant state agencies since then. “This task force is an extension of our efforts so that we have an opportunity to formulate a state response to the federal government,” Cheng said in a news release.

A group of Virginia homeowners is waiting for a ruling from a federal judge in New Orleans who is considering the proper remedy for homes built with the sulfurous wallboard.

By Peter Vieth

As debate rages over how and where to try accused terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Virginia federal judge with terror trial experience will address the management of high visibility cases this month at Washington & Lee University.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema will speak at W&L on Tuesday, March 16. According to the school, Brinkema will discuss balancing the demands of national security in international terrorism cases with the intense scrutiny such cases draw from the media and the public.

Brinkema presided over the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the first person to be convicted for crimes related to the 9/11 attacks.

By Peter Vieth

Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, took to the Senate floor today to warn about that proposal to freeze judicial appointments in order to balance the budget.

“This short-sighted part of the House budget could do serious damage to the judicial system of Virginia,” Edwards said. He urged budget conferees to “recognize how important it is to maintain a full complement of judges throughout the commonwealth.”

Edwards joins the Virginia State Bar Council in opposing the plan to allow judicial vacancies to remain unfilled over the two-year budget period.

By Peter Vieth

To hear Roanoke-area  circuit judges talking, the state’s moribund judicial performance evaluation program deserves another chance.

As we reported in December, some key legislators have indicated they would welcome revival of the JPE project, where anonymous comments about judges were assembled by a VCU unit and delivered by the Supreme Court of Virginia.

At a recent bench-bar meeting, it seemed Roanoke judges would be no less grateful if the program were reinstated.

“The Supreme Court contracted with VCU to actually get the comments and to put them in usable form and to try to conceal who was commenting, and they did an incredibly good job. It really was a much better product than I expected,” said Judge Clifford Weckstein.

Both Judges William Broadhurst and Charles Dorsey found the evaluations “very helpful.”

“You really don’t get a look at yourself on the bench. You really don’t see if you’re doing something that’s odd or coming across in a way that you didn’t intend to do,”  commented Broadhurst.

By Peter Vieth

Arkansas lawyer David Couch used to make a living defending nursing homes. Till he switched sides and started suing them.

He was in Richmond Feb. 26 to talk to the VTLA’s Long-Term Care Litigation Section on such topics as proving understaffing.

Couch said that he likes nothing better than being told he will be trying a case in a “conservative” venue.

“Bubba may be conservative,” he said, but if it’s Bubba’s mama being abused for corporate profit, “Bubba’s gonna take them to the woodshed and whip their butts….Bubba will take care of his own kind,” Couch said.

Look for more reporting on trends in nursing home litigation in the March 8 issue of Virginia Lawyers Weekly.
By Deborah Elkins

When disputes arise at depositions, as they often do, lawyers will threaten to get the judge on the line to decide who’s right and who’s wrong. A discussion at last week’s bench-bar conference in Roanoke made one thing clear - you better check who your judge is before you ask for telephonic jurisprudence.

Circuit Judge Pat Doherty spoke expansively, telling lawyers if they run into problems during depositions, “We all take phone calls. We’ll try to resolve it.” Near the other end of the dais, however, Circuit Judge William Broadhurst (pictured) was shaking his head. “Don’t call me,” he said. “Get it worked out.”

“I’ll take Broadhurst’s calls,” offered U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski in a spirit of federal-state cooperation, bringing that colloquy to an end with prolonged laughter.

A House committee has approved the election of Franklin County Circuit Judge William Alexander to a third eight-year term on the bench.

Alexander came under scrutiny by the panel for his handling of a special grand jury that looked into management of the Franklin County sheriff’s department. He later acknowledged in writing that, if the matter were to arise again, he would recuse himself.

According to The Roanoke Times, there was no opposition in Friday’s vote to certify Alexander for reappointment.

By Peter Vieth

Virginia’s two Democratic U.S. senators invoked the name of Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell today in urging their Senate colleagues to act on the nomination of Virginia Supreme Court Justice Barbara Keenan for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner noted that Keenan has been a trailblazer for women lawyers and judges throughout her career and emphasized that she was voted out of the Judiciary Committee by a unanimous voice vote in October.

“In the spirit of pragmatic bipartisanship and good governance, it believe it is time to move past procedural days that seem to infect and get on with the business of governing,” Webb said on the Senate floor.

As evidence of Keenan’s bipartisan support, Webb and Warner noted that McDonnell had asked that she swear him in as governor.

“I am asking colleagues across the aisle if they might allow this nomination to advance in a timely way,” Webb said.
By Alan Cooper

Virginia public school officials score a win at the Supreme Court of Virginia today with a decision that the state’s insurance plan for school systems must cover school districts for lawsuits under the federal special education law.

The ruling means the state owes the Newport News school district nearly $200,000, and probably more, since there is an award of costs with the decision in School Board v. Commonwealth.

Special education disputes start out as administrative proceedings, which the insurance plan expressly does not cover. When the fight over services moves to federal court, however, the matter becomes civil litigation and the school system is entitled to a defense and coverage for damages, the court decided.

By Peter Vieth