The VLW Blog

A seaman claiming injuries stemming from a fateful shore leave in Korea may have to retry his case against a Norfolk shipping company. The decision by the Supreme Court of Virginia ends the seaman’s hope to reinstate a $25-million jury verdict. The seaman claimed his employer, the shipping company, failed to provide sufficient medical help [...]

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Court business was on hold for a few hours Tuesday morning in Hampton, Portsmouth, and Newport News. State courts there were evacuated and searched in response to a telephone bomb threat directed at all three localities, reports the Daily Press. Apparently, no explosives were found. Courts reopened around midday. By Peter Vieth

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Is Texas Hold ‘em a game of skill or a game of chance? A Portsmouth circuit judge will get to answer that conundrum. The former owner of a poker hall in Portsmouth has challenged a decision by the commonwealth’s attorney, who said poker is a game of chance and therefore outlawed by the state’s gambling [...]

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An injured longshoreman who managed to keep his case out of federal court has won a $5 million verdict from a Portsmouth jury. The Virginian-Pilot reports Sherman Whitaker was hurt when he fell through a shipyard catwalk in 2002.  His lawyer, William Breit, filed suit against his German-owned employer in Portsmouth Circuit Court asking for [...]

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The city of Portsmouth has settled with the Justice Department in a lawsuit that claimed a written exam discriminated against African-American firefighter applicants. According to the Justice Department, as of Oct. 7, 2008, Portsmouth employed about 226 firefighters. Just over 12 percent are African American, while the city’s civilian labor force is more than 45 [...]

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As you celebrate later today, raise a glass of green beer to those dedicated folks who keep the commonwealth’s courts running despite a shortage of jurisprudence and an excess of water. In Augusta County general district court, it’s the lack of a full time judge that has staffers scrambling to  keep the court’s 2,000 cases [...]

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Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Earle Mobley (left) got a public pat on the back Saturday from columnist Roger Chesley at The Virginian-Pilot. The piece highlight’s Mobley’s unsolicited telephone call to lawyers in a high-profile murder trial underway in nearby Chesapeake.  In that case, special prosecutor Roger Ebert put a jailhouse snitch named Jamaal Skeeter (we couldn’t [...]

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