Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Many Virginia prosecutors have relief from their normally tight speedy-trial deadlines for bringing criminal defendants to justice under rulings from three influential courts. The decisions were prompted by the coronavirus outbreak. The federal courts of Virginia and the Fairfax County ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus Criminal U.S. District Court - Eastern District U.S. District Court - Western District Virginia Circuit Courts

The Supreme Court of Virginia has vacated its adoption of a 19-page guidance document on the ethical rule barring attorneys’ contacts with certain represented persons. The justices adopted Legal Ethics Opinion 1890 on Jan. 7 but vacated and set aside ...

Virginia lawyers are frustrated as a shutdown of nearly all non-emergency court activity continued for a third week in courts throughout the state. Litigators – both civil and criminal – complained that matters that could readily be resolved with now-familiar ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus Courts

The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission’s main office was to close April 7 after a staffer was suspected of having the coronavirus. The closing means a deadline extension for parties in VWC cases. The VWC headquarters on East Franklin Street in ...

A circuit court panel has suspended a Manassas lawyer for two years for borrowing nearly $11,000 from the fiduciary account of a helpless client. David B. Wilks is a tax lawyer of long standing in Prince William County. He created ...

Relying on what he termed a “relaxed” Virginia standard for pleading defamation by implication, a Fairfax County judge has allowed actor Johnny Depp’s libel lawsuit against his ex-wife to go forward. Circuit Judge Bruce D. White said three statements in ...

Tagged with: Defamation Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Bruce D. White

A second federal judge in Virginia has concluded that giving the finger to a police officer does not create enough suspicion of trouble to justify a traffic stop. The decision overturns a jury verdict in favor of a Patrick County ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Criminal Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

A former patient at Lynchburg General Hospital says he was severely injured when he was shocked by a security guard wielding a stun gun in 2018. Now, the patient has filed a civil rights action against the hospital owner and ...

The Supreme Court of Virginia will hear all oral arguments in its April session by telephone, the court announced April 3. An order allows parties the choice of arguing by telephone conference call or waiving oral argument for the April ...

Some Virginia lawyers will be voting on their representatives to Bar Council this month. There are elections in five Virginia State Bar circuits to take place from April 13 to May 1. In Fairfax County, 11 candidates are vying for ...