The VLW Blog

Washington, D.C. lawyers who won a pro bono voter records case can’t expect to recoup fees at D.C. rates, a Norfolk federal judge said last week. Lawyers from the D.C. office of Boston-based Ropes & Gray went to bat for Project Vote, who alleged that students at Norfolk State University had problems registering to vote [...]

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An actor who made his reputation playing a slightly sleazy TV lawyer can tell a jury he did not violate a morality clause in his contract to be a celebrity spokesperson for a legal marketing campaign. Virginia Beach-based Innovative Legal Marketing LLC hired Corbin Bernsen to promote its “BIG CASE” TV advertising campaign. Bernsen gained [...]

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A Norfolk criminal defense attorney was arrested days after he allegedly yelled accusations against his client’s co-defendant in a courtroom hallway. Herman C. Smith III is being held without bond in the Norfolk City Jail on a felony obstruction of justice charge, reports The Virginian-Pilot. The incident occurred on Tuesday after a preliminary hearing in [...]

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A Norfolk city agency cannot collect contract damages against the supervisor of a “no-show” employee for the money the agency paid the absent employee, a Norfolk Circuit Court says. Virginia contract law does not provide a basis to hold a public employee liable for agency mismanagement, the court said. The Norfolk Community Services Board filed [...]

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The contractor for the Clarksville bypass on U.S. 58 is due $12 million, $9.2 million less than he originally was awarded, Norfolk Circuit Judge Charles E. Poston has ruled. The Virginia Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that Poston had erred in excusing AMEC Civil LLC from the formal requirements of [...]

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A Norfolk federal court has awarded reimbursement for experts’ travel time to depositions, but at a rate that is half the hourly charge for time actually spent in deposition. Senior U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon, who sits in Charlottesville, was called to Norfolk to hear the federal government’s condemnation case involving 1.604 acres in [...]

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The law office of B. Cullen Gibson in Norfolk has won the Attorney General’s Cup for raising the most food per person in the fifth annual Legal Food Frenzy. The frenzy raised more than 1.6 million pounds of food for the state’s food banks in a competition among 177 Virginia law firms and legal departments [...]

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Court personnel are on the front lines of customer service every day. So it’s nice when someone notices these public servants can’t always respond to the guff they can get when dealing with the public. When he got a summons to appear for jury duty in Norfolk Circuit Court, James C. Henderson went to the [...]

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A Norfolk man whose loud protest about a jury summons earned him a contempt conviction has been exonerated by the Court of Appeals of Virginia. James C. Henderson definitely did NOT want to serve on a jury. Summoned in 2009, he showed up at the Norfolk courthouse, making it clear to all in a loud [...]

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Norfolk Circuit Judge Mary Jane Hall will allow small groups of plaintiffs to try their Chinese drywall cases together, rejecting defense arguments that disparate personal injury claims would make trial consolidation unfair. Hall announced her decision in a June 23 letter opinion. Hall already had consolidated scores of Chinese drywall lawsuits for pretrial rulings, including [...]

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