Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

A circuit court ruling that “undue influence and fraud” was afoot when a lawyer procured a will making himself the primary beneficiary has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Virginia. Despite a challenge to the standing of one beneficiary ...

Tagged with: Supreme Court of Virginia undue influence Wills

Virginia lawyers who serve in the General Assembly enjoy outsized powers and privileges in their interactions with the judges who rule on their cases. But any regulation would be impractical, many of them say. In Virginia, lawyer-legislators can have a ...

Tagged with: Del. Jeff Campbell Del. Michael Mullin Del. Terry Kilgore Judge Bonnie L. Jones Judge David M. Hicks Judge Henry Vanover Judges Judicial nominations Justice D. Arthur Kelsey Justice Teresa Chafin Sen. Joe Morrissey Sen. Richard H. Stuart Sen. Scott Surovell Sen. Tommy Norment Virginia General Assembly

The Supreme Court of Virginia has blocked a $20,000 award of costs to medical malpractice defendants after the plaintiff took a mid-trial nonsuit, ruling the order granting costs came more than 21 days after the nonsuit order. The May 20 ...

Tagged with: Court costs Justice Stephen R. McCullough Medical Malpractice Supreme Court of Virginia

A former lawyer accused of defrauding two elderly clients may be confronted on the witness stand with the Virginia State Bar affidavit she signed when she agreed to give up her law license in 2019, a Lynchburg federal judge has ...

Tagged with: Attorneys bar discipline Judge Norman K. Moon U.S. District Court - Western District

A Floyd County circuit judge has refused to allow the state to seize a couple’s home alleged to have been the site of a major marijuana distribution operation. The judge cited the fact that only one spouse had been convicted ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Drug seizure Floyd County Circuit Court Judge K. Mike Fleenor Jr. marijuana

A Williamsburg lawyer who was convicted by a Norfolk federal jury of conspiracy in a $25 million investment fraud scheme has given up his law license. Billy J. Seabolt, 56, served as counsel for investment advisor Daryl Bank as Bank ...

Virginia’s U.S. senators are recommending three candidates for a coming vacancy on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine recommend U.S. District Judges Arenda Wright Allen and Hannah Lauck and Virginia Solicitor General ...

Acknowledging a lapse in pretrial disclosures, federal prosecutors in the Western District of Virginia agreed to dismissal of all charges against a woman convicted by a jury of providing contraband to her jailed boyfriend. The move followed a dispute over ...

Tagged with: Brady violation Criminal Law U.S. District Court - Western District

Two appellate courts have rendered judgment on the significance of placing items in a zipped-up backpack. The outcomes suggest a backpack could be a safe harbor in the right circumstances. One case called for a ruling by the Virginia Supreme ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Supreme Court of Virginia

Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Adrianne Bennett, the former state Parole Board chair, went on “extended leave” in mid-April, according to a report by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Citing an April 14 email from the court clerk, the paper ...