The VLW Blog

The attorney general’s office is sponsoring a legislative fix to a problem that it doesn’t believe really exists.
The issue is the practice of having nonlawyers sign motions to hold in contempt parents who are delinquent in their support obligations.
Kimberly J. Daniel, a juvenile and domestic relations district judge in Fairfax County, ruled in October that […]

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Divorce lawyers looking for a benchmark for monetary awards may want to check out a recent Court of Appeals case.
Lawyers know there is no rule requiring a 50-50 split of marital property. But arguments about who contributed what to a marriage often degenerate into “he said, she said” contests. Then something approaching an even split […]

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Judge Nelson T. Overton, who served on the Court of Appeals from 1995 to 1999, died at his home yesterday. He was 79.
The judge was a circuit judge in Hampton before he became the first judge from the Peninsula to serve on the intermediate court.
The Daily Press has details.

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Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. noted that the University of Virginia Health Services Foundation pays annual bonuses ranging from $70,000 to more than $850,000 to physicians who work at U.Va. Hospital.
“To me, it raises a big eyebrow,” Hassell told Charlottesville lawyer Donald R. Morin, who was trying to convince the Supreme Court […]

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Attorneys for opponents of regional transportation authorities told the Supreme Court of Virginia today that the General Assembly cannot delegate the power to impose taxes to non-elected bodies.
William G. Broaddus, responding for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, countered that no delegation is involved because the legislature specified the type of taxes and fees and their […]

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Civil remedial fees, also known as “abusive driver” fees, were a big deal in 2007. Designed as a way to raise money for roads without raising taxes, the fee scheme assessed big bucks for certain driving offenses. But only against Virginia residents. Negotiated between the governor’s office and leaders in the General Assembly, the program […]

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How much does a cop’s disclaimer count when deciding whether a suspect is actually in custody?
Not much in a recent 4th Circuit case.
FBI agents, some 23 strong, burst into the Chesapeake home of Willoughby Warren Colonna IV, a/k/a “maryanna,” in 2004 after detecting “preteen sex pics” on Colonna’s home computer. The agents awakened Colonna’s […]

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Lawyers trying to get a decision on the merits in the Virginia Court of Appeals know they have to clear the hurdle of Rule 5A:18, which makes sure the trial court had a chance to consider any claim of error a party wants to pursue on appeal.
Appellate lawyers had better start paying closer attention to […]

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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed last week a downward departure for a sentence that it likely would have found unreasonable before the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings in Gall v. U.S. and Kimbrough v. U.S. on Dec. 10.
Larry Pauley was convicted of one count of possessing child pornography and acknowledged that his guidelines’ […]

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