Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Letters to the Editor

Dec 17, 2007

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor: I’m writing to those of you who offer free initial consultations to prospective clients in order to determine whether you can help them. I want to persuade you to stop. It certainly is not my intention to ask you to stop seeing prospective clients. I do, however, want to suggest that you stop […]

Apr 16, 2007

Letter to the Editor

I read with great consternation the remarks made in the General Assembly by Robert Lamb and House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith in opposition to Sen. Henry Marsh’s bill regarding our Commonwealth’s participation in the bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birth (Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Feb. 19, 2007). I am a proud member of the bars of […]

Mar 12, 2007

Legislative background of lien law explained

Dear Editor: Your lead article in your Feb. 26 issue caught my eye (“General contractor, sub have different rules on perfection of mechanic’s liens”). I am pleased to see that Judge Sharrett got the interpretation of the 2003 amendment to Va. Code Section 43-4 exactly right. While Virginia does not really use legislative history, the […]

Oct 9, 2006

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor: The Virginia Supreme Court recently issued an opinion in the case of Janvier v. Arminio in which a serious anomaly in the statutory law of Virginia was highlighted and brought to the attention of the General Assembly. In that case, a second nonsuit was knowingly granted by the trial judge, but it was […]

May 8, 2006

Letters to the Editor

CPF officers explain fund’s purpose Dear Editor: As the chair and vice-chair of the Virginia State Bar’s Clients’ Protection Fund, we write in response to the letter submitted by fellow VSB attorney H. Watkins Ellerson in the April 17 edition of Virginia Lawyers Weekly (“Lawyer Objects to Mandatory Liability Coverage,” 20 VLW 1383). In his […]

May 1, 2006

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor: Watkins Ellerson’s recent letter (VLW, 4/17/06, “Lawyer objects to mandatory liability coverage”) reinforces how difficult it is (even for lawyers) to understand the distinction among various risks faced by lawyers and those who engage a lawyer’s services. Members of the general public can be harmed by lawyers who commit malpractice, by unethical lawyers, [&hel[...]

Apr 17, 2006

Letter to the Editor

Lawyer objects to mandatory liability coverage Dear Editor: Once again the issue of mandatory liability insurance for lawyers has raised its ugly head from the (un)dead like Dracula. Nowhere in Alan Cooper’s article of March 27 (“VSB: Mandatory insurance mulled”) was the extent of any problem stated. I have no problem with a client-disclosure rule […]

Feb 13, 2006

VSB President Anderson urges action on appointed pay

Dear Editor: Today hundreds of “innocent” Virginians will walk into Virginia courts charged with crimes. These charges could result in their loss of liberty. They are “innocent” because our system of justice presumes all Virginians are “innocent” until proven guilty—proven guilty through an adversarial process predicated upon an aggressive prosecution and [...]

Dec 26, 2005

Law prof questions Allen's action on Byrd Amendment

Dear Editor: Sen. George Allen is opposing the repeal of the Byrd Amendment. Why on earth is the Virginia senator supporting legislation that has been roundly criticized by all supporters of free trade, the Bush Administration, and the World Trade Organization, which found it invalid? How can he contest a measure supported only by only […]

Sep 12, 2005

OPEN LETTER TO ALL VIRGINIA LAWYERS

All Virginians have been dismayed by the destruction, dislocation, and loss of life caused by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The Supreme Court of Virginia and the Virginia State Bar have had discussions with representatives of the judicial systems and bar organizations in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. We have also had discussions […]

Mar 14, 2005

Legal Aid Lawyer Responds On 'Parental Abuse' Cases

Dear Editor: I read with interest Hugh F. O’Donnell’s article “What’s Wrong With the Picture: The Other Side of Repre-senting Parents in Child Protection Cases” [VSB Family Law News, Fall 2004] and his recent letter to Virginia Lawyers Weekly [VLW, Feb. 21, 2005] and felt that I had to comment. Mr. O’Donnell makes a number […]

Feb 21, 2005

Representation Of Parents Challenging, Prompts Lawyer To Critique The System

Dear Editor: This past fall, “Family Law News,” the quarterly newsletter of the Family Law Section of the Virginia State Bar, carried an article I wrote about the challenges of representing parents in child protection (i.e., neglect and abuse) cases. The article was based on many years’ experience as a legal aid lawyer representing parents […]

Verdicts & Settlements

See All Verdicts & Settlements

Opinion Digests

See All Digests