A writ of prohibition does not lie to challenge certain local court rules of the 17th Judicial Circuit. Background “Petitioner is the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church. On March 4, 2020, the judges of ...

Tagged with: Courts Supreme Court of Virginia

The Supreme Court of Virginia has refused to consider whether Arlington County circuit judges improperly curbed prosecutors’ discretion to drop criminal charges. The decision arose from the tension in some Virginia courts between progressive prosecutors determined not to pursue minor ...

Tagged with: Criminal General Assembly Supreme Court of Virginia

Where the highway commissioner sought to take property for a road improvement project, the trial court properly excluded a landowner’s testimony and an unapproved 10-year-old site plan to establish compensation for the taking. Background Palmyra Associates owned a 44-acre unimproved ...

Tagged with: Justice Stephen R. McCullough Real Estate Supreme Court of Virginia

After accepting two criminal appeals in order to clarify the test for applying a statutory bar to successive prosecution, the Supreme Court of Virginia split on both the proper test and the way the majority applied its test. The result ...

Tagged with: firearm possession Justice Stephen R. McCullough Supreme Court of Virginia

Even though the trial court granted the appellees’ pleas in bar without allowing appellant to present evidence in this foreclosure challenge case, the error was harmless. Appellant’s failure to accept a permanent loan modification “severed the connection” between the lending ...

Tagged with: Real Estate Supreme Court of Virginia

Where the decedent’s will gave her son an option to purchase real estate devised to her three daughters at “fair market value” within one year of the probate of her will, the term “fair market value” is not a “sufficiently ...

Tagged with: Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn Real Estate Supreme Court of Virginia

Where appellant sued his jailers under 42 U.S.C § 1983 for violating the Eight Amendment by improperly and painfully restraining him for a lengthy period, the circuit court erred by dismissing the claim without reviewing a video recording of the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Supreme Court of Virginia

Where petitioners lease oyster grounds from the commonwealth, the circuit court correctly dismissed their inverse condemnation claim, which alleged that municipal sewage discharges polluted the water in which they raise oysters. Overview Petitioners lease publicly owned bottomland in the Nansemond ...

Tagged with: Contract Justice Stephen R. McCullough Supreme Court of Virginia

Where the trial court required plaintiff to show a “direct relationship” between a defense expert and defendant’s insurer before allowing the expert to be cross-examined on his prior financial relationship with the insurer, this was error. Caselaw provides that the ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia

A patient who claimed she suffered persistent discomfort from complications of a dental procedure was awarded $625,000 plus interest and costs in an Augusta County case marked by disputes over surveillance of the plaintiff when she was only 16. The ...

Tagged with: Medical Malpractice Supreme Court of Virginia