Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

HARRISONBURG (AP) — A federal judge on Friday certified a lawsuit challenging Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriages as a class action. U.S. District Judge Michael F. Urbanski ruled in a lawsuit brought last summer by two couples against the state’s ...

(AP) — New filings with the IRS show that the legal defense fund set up for former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell raised more than $11,000 last year. The biggest donor was Stanley F. Baldwin, a Virginia Beach attorney who started ...

(AP) — Prosecutors and defense lawyers for former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, are arguing over how much contact the couple can have with potential witnesses who are friends or relatives. The McDonnells’ lawyers filed a motion ...

(AP) — Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges that they traded their influence for tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans, and both will be allowed to remain free ...

ROANOKE (AP) — The U.S. attorney for Virginia’s western district says the office collected more than $500 million in criminal and civil penalties in the last fiscal year. That’s the largest amount ever collected in the district. A big chunk ...

(AP) — Following a seismic political shift in Virginia’s top elected offices, the new attorney general has concluded that the state’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and he will no longer defend it in federal lawsuits, his office said ...

CULPEPER, Va. (AP) — A settlement has been reached in the wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a police officer’s fatal shooting of a Culpeper woman. The Culpeper Star-Exponent reports the town of Culpeper’s insurance carrier will pay an undisclosed amount ...

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A man sentenced as a teenager to six life terms for armed robbery has had his prison term slashed to 40 years. Travion Blount had asked then-Gov. Bob McDonnell for relief last month. The Virginian-Pilot reports ...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that Virginia cannot automatically hold prisoners convicted of capital murder on “death row,” where the harsh conditions and solitary confinement amount to an unconstitutional denial of due process. U.S. District Judge ...

(AP) — An animal rights group is suing the city of Norfolk in a dispute over text messages. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claims the city is violating public record disclosure laws by failing to preserve and release ...