Capital One’s Justice Server program links pro bono lawyers to clients
Lawyers and information-technology experts at Capital One are teaming up with private and public sector lawyers to streamline the administration of pro bono legal work in Virginia. Lawyers who do pro bono work find that one of the best ways to reach clients is to work through state and local legal aid organizations. Legal aid […]
The VBA Legislative Agenda for the 2012 session
Highlights of legislation backed by the Virginia Bar Association, the Boyd-Graves Conference, the Virginia Family Law Coalition and the Virginia Alternative Dispute Resolution Joint Committee. Rules of Evidence. The Boyd-Graves Conference strongly supports passage of the Virginia Rules of Evidence as approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia. Protection of Trustee acting at the direction […[...]
Bill seeks bar membership for law profs, court won’t block
Some Virginia law professors would be eligible to practice law even though they have not passed the bar exam under a bill introduced at the General Assembly. The proposal has been advanced by Washington & Lee University law Prof. A. Benjamin Spencer with the backing of the Virginia State Bar Council and several statewide bar […]
VBA steps up lobbying efforts in 2012
ROANOKE—After hiring a new lobbying firm, the Virginia Bar Association hopes to have a stronger impact on bills of interest to lawyers in this year’s General Assembly session. “We have ramped up our lobbying effort,” VBA president Lucia Anna Trigiani told members of the Roanoke Bar Association Tuesday. The change was calculated and set in […]
VBA marks Veteran Legal Services Month
It’s Veteran Legal Services Month, and the Virginia Bar Association is once again at work recruiting pro bono volunteers to help veterans with legal issues and raising money for projects that help them. Volunteer response was strong last November, during the bar group’s first push for help for veterans. But pro bono lawyers are still […]
Little consensus on response to decline in jury trials
HOT SPRINGS–Lawyers and judges lament the decline in the number of jury trials, but find little common ground on what to do about the trend – or whether anything needs to be done at all. “If you lose the jury trial, the system dies,” said Virginia Supreme Court Justice Donald W. Lemons, expressing a sentiment […]
Norfolk lawyer wins in Legal Food Frenzy
The law office of B. Cullen Gibson in Norfolk has won the Attorney General’s Cup for raising the most food per person in the fifth annual Legal Food Frenzy. The frenzy raised more than 1.6 million pounds of food for the state’s food banks in a competition among 177 Virginia law firms and legal departments […]
Fairfax bar executive McGhee heads to VBA
Yvonne C. McGhee, the executive director of the Fairfax Bar Association since 2000, has been chosen as the new executive director of the Virginia Bar Association. VBA President Pia Trigiani said McGhee “possesses a unique and impressive background,” that combines legal experience and association management with a record of success in membership expansion, program development, […]
Effort to reinstate mandatory IOLTA dies in House committee
The effort in the 2011 General Assembly to revive mandatory IOLTA is dead for the time being. Proponents of reinstating mandatory IOLTA as a tool to raise money for legal aid failed to clear the first hurdle – lifting the ban on the concept the Assembly imposed in 1995. The fight over IOLTA strained relations […]
A touch of grace
He probably knew it would be his last speech. Supreme Court Justice Leroy Hassell, who died last Tuesday, made his last public appearance at the Virginia Bar Association meeting in Williamsburg on Jan. 21, just three and a half weeks prior to his death. He apparently had cancer. And he had the chance to speak […]
Trigiani: VBA is about making connections
When Lucia Anna Trigiani entered the University of Richmond law school in 1980, she expected to return to Big Stone Gap and be a trial lawyer. But she took a summer job at the end of her first year of law school with the Virginia Real Estate Commission reviewing applications for the registration of condominiums. […]
Senator to VSB: So where would you say we get the money?
The Virginia State Bar may have difficulty hanging on to its $5 million reserve fund. But there still may be hope for thawing the freeze on new judges in Virginia. Leaders from a number of the commonwealth’s bar groups trooped to Capitol Hill on Jan. 25, appearing before the House Appropriations Committee for an early-morning […]
Verdicts & Settlements
- Driver struck twice in rear-end collision at red light — $350,000 settlement
- Drunken driver strikes vehicle on interstate — $200,000 settlement
- Trip and fall on mat leads to knee replacement surgery — $1.5M verdict
- Woman suffers permanent injury in broadside crash — $2.325M settlement
- Teacher injured in accident during morning commute — $1.5M settlement
- Woodshop incident leads to amputation of fingers — $1.3M settlement
- Motorcyclist’s foot amputated in collision — $7M settlement
- Contractor rear-ended on interstate on way to wedding — $825,000 settlement
- Man suffers back injury in crash with out-of-state driver — $530,000 settlement
- Driver crossed center line, struck 89-year-old’s vehicle — $1.2M settlement
- Jury returns defense verdict in favor of gastroenterologist
- Teens killed in T-bone collision with officer — $3.1M settlement
Opinion Digests
- Court silent on if ALJs were constitutionally appointed
- Homeowner’s lawsuit barred by res judicata
- Uncertainty over service prevents default judgment
- No stay of case pending resolution of motion
- Man’s unlawful search, seizure claims dismissed
- Amazon shows patent claim is ineligible abstract idea
- Geographical separation dooms trademark claim
- ‘Narcotics trafficker’ defense rejected
- Litigant’s suit against courts, judges dismissed
- Body cam footage properly admitted
- Motion to withdraw pleas properly denied
- Evidence supports murder, conspiracy conviction