Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

Work on the new Thomas Jefferson School of Law in California has come to a temporary halt with discovery of the remains of an ancient mammoth.  The creature died some 500,000 years ago at a site in what is now ...

Tagged with: Law Schools

Lawyers may continue to use the Fastcase legal research through the Virginia State Bar for another year. The VSB has exercised its option to extend its contract for the Fastcase legal research service for one more year, effective Feb. 10, ...

Gov. Kaine and legislative leaders are announcing what they call a “landmark agreement” to pass a statewide smoking ban in Virginia’s bars and restaurants.  The only exceptions, they say, are for private clubs and for restaurants with independently-ventilated smoking rooms. ...

Tagged with: General Assembly Gov. Tim Kaine

Former Virginia Supreme Court Justice John Charles Thomas is among those who have told the Virginia State Bar that they are interested in a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A current member of the Supreme Court, ...

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

Bill Mims, who is likely to be the commonwealth’s next attorney general, was an All-District offensive tackle for the Harrisonburg High School Blue Streaks in the early 1970s. Mims was born and raised in Harrisonburg, according to a profile piece ...

Tagged with: General Assembly

A former Head Start official in Norton can sue the local program under the federal False Claims Act, a Big Stone Gap federal district court ruled yesterday. Suits under the False Claims Act allow a plaintiff, or “relator,” to blow ...

Tagged with: Fraud

A ruling by the 4th Circuit means a third sentencing for a Roanoke County man convicted of possessing a gun as a felon. According to The Roanoke Times, Michael Ray Thornton was convicted in 2005 of being a felon in ...

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

The House and Senate Courts of Justice Committees will interview a sixth candidate tomorrow for a Virginia Court of Appeals vacancy – Prince William County Circuit Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. A member of the Prince William delegation, Del. Jackson ...

Tagged with: General Assembly Judgeships

The Virginia Court of Appeals today fined a Suffolk lawyer $1,000 and disbarred her indefinitely from practicing before the court because she repeatedly ignored the court’s orders. The difficulties of Anne Marston Lynch began in March 2008 when she filed ...

Tagged with: Virginia Court of Appeals

A legislative subcommittee approved bills last night that would have the General Assembly take over the judicial performance evaluation program and limit the tenure of the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia to eight years. The subcommittee also ...

Tagged with: General Assembly