Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

The Supreme Court of Virginia has been asked to decide whether a divorcing wife violated the state’s “revenge porn” law when she let her lawyer use secretly recorded nude images to question her husband’s girlfriend about adultery. The case marks ...

Tagged with: Attorney-client privilege Divorce Supreme Court of Virginia

A Fairfax County circuit judge has declined to uphold an arbitration clause in a trust agreement, and refused to send a dispute over the actions of a trustee to arbitration. Finding the controversy over the trustee’s actions had not arisen ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Bruce D. White Wills & Trusts

Virginia Lawyers Weekly is seeking nominations for its statewide awards program recognizing the Old Dominion’s most talented and dedicated legal support professionals. Now in its fourth year, the “Unsung Legal Heroes” awards honor law firm employees, other than lawyers, who ...

The Court of Appeals of Virginia has declined to address a divorce lawyer’s appeal of her overnight jail stay on a purported contempt finding. The lawyer says the decision illustrates that she was never officially held in contempt by the ...

Tagged with: Contempt Judge James P. Fisher Virginia Court of Appeals

In a court battle in which one dentist is suing another for defamation and for firing him, a circuit judge has ordered the defendant dentist to pay $140,554.65 in attorneys’ fees and costs for deleting digital records requested in discovery. ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Defamation Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Michael F. Devine Spoliation Virginia Circuit Courts

Former Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh has been selected as counsel for the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission. He was to join the commission staff in late September and become Commission Counsel upon the retirement of current counsel ...

With overwhelming bipartisan support, the U.S. Senate has confirmed Roderick C. Young, one of President Trump’s few Black judicial nominees. Young, a former federal prosecutor and a longtime magistrate judge in Richmond, was confirmed in a 93-2 vote on Sept. ...

Tagged with: Judge Rebecca Beach Smith Judge Roderick C. Young U.S. District Court - Eastern District

With elaborate preparations, Virginia courts are holding jury trials again, even in the midst of the pandemic. Henrico County was first, holding jury selection in a two-day drug case on Sept. 15. But Stafford County and the U.S. District Court ...

Tagged with: Coronavirus Henrico County Circuit Court Judge James S. Yoffy Jury trials Stafford County Circuit Court U.S. District Court - Western District

Criminal justice reforms being hammered out – and sometimes beaten down – at the midyear General Assembly session have the potential to affect criminal law practice across the state. Even proposals that meet defeat in the ongoing special session could ...

Tagged with: Criminal

A Fairfax lawyer is questioning a promise by Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano to continue prosecuting animal cruelty cases. On Aug. 19, WDVM-TV reported that the Fairfax commonwealth’s attorney’s office was no longer prosecuting animal misdemeanor charges and was cutting the ...

Tagged with: Animal cruelty Fairfax County Steve Descano