The Supreme Court of Virginia is bringing back the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, the court said on Oct. 20. Virginia Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons signed an order re-establishing the advisory committee, which first saw life in 1999 and effectively ...

Tagged with: Ethics Judgeships Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission Supreme Court of Virginia News

A prosecutor accused of intentionally withholding evidence required to be disclosed to a criminal defendant’s lawyer won dismissal of bar charges on July 22. A district committee of the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board unanimously determined to dismiss the bar ...

Tagged with: Commonwealth's Attorneys Ethics Lawyer Discipline Virginia State Bar

Virginia prosecutors may have an ethical duty to avoid plea bargains that could lead to defendants’ deportation under new guidance from the Virginia State Bar, but only in limited circumstances. A final VSB legal ethics opinion arising from so-called Padilla ...

Tagged with: Commonwealth's Attorneys Ethics Immigration Legal Ethics Opinion Virginia State Bar

A Virginia State Bar disciplinary panel has accused a former commonwealth’s attorney of misleading a jury about possible benefits for the testimony of a government witness. Former Culpeper County Commonwealth’s Attorney Gary L. Close is facing four possible findings of ...

Tagged with: Ethics Federal Courts Judge James C. Turk Lawyer Discipline Virginia State Bar

A Virginia State Bar panel is still pondering how best to prevent criminal defendants from unwittingly creating immigration problems for themselves when they accept plea offers in misdemeanor cases. A proposal to recognize an ethical duty for prosecutors to guard ...

Tagged with: Ethics Immigration Legal Ethics Opinion Virginia State Bar

The Center for Judicial Ethics has been acquired by the Williamsburg-based National Center for State Courts in the wake of the breakup of the American Judicature Society. The move brings the CJE, a national clearinghouse on judicial ethics and discipline, ...

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Lawyers will not be in trouble with the Virginia State Bar for ghostwriting pleadings for pro se litigants, but they still have to use care about where those pleadings might be filed, under a new guidance from the bar. Overruling ...

Tagged with: Ethics Legal Ethics Opinion Virginia State Bar

VIRGINIA BEACH – Neither lawyers who want to leave a law firm nor those who remain would be able to contact the firm’s clients until the two sides have tried to forge a joint letter advising clients of the breakup, ...

Tagged with: Ethics Law Firms Rules of Professional Conduct Virginia State Bar

Virginia State Bar authorities want to rewrite the advisory guidelines for lawyers who ghostwrite pleadings intended to be filed in court by non-lawyer clients. While ghostwriting has been frowned upon by many judges and ethically allowed only with disclosure of ...

Tagged with: Ethics Federal Courts Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. Judge James C. Turk Legal Ethics Opinion Virginia State Bar

A proposed Virginia rule governing law firm splits should recognize that departing lawyers usually leave suddenly, without warning to the firm, according to lawyers who have experienced firm breakups. The chaos and acrimony that often follows a split is on ...

Tagged with: Employment Ethics Judge Melvin R. Hughes Jr. Law Firms Rules of Professional Conduct Virginia State Bar