The VLW Blog

Mistakenly telling a client that his criminal conviction won’t force his departure from U.S. shores can let the client overturn the conviction, as a new federal case illustrates.
Alexandria Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III granted a Pakistani citizen’s § 2255 motion to vacate his conviction of operating an illegal gambling business in violation of […]

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Virginia State Bar President Jon D. Huddleston sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission today objecting to the inclusion of lawyers among those subject to regulation under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) of 2003.
The Red Flag Rules adopted under the law require creditors to develop written programs to identify, detect and […]

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Deep in today’s Washington Post story about the deadliest crash in Metro history is this nugget, flagged by On The Record, a blog of our sister paper in Maryland:
The first lawsuit against Metro as a result of the crash was filed yesterday, and more are expected. The parents of Davonne Flanagan, 15, of the District […]

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Who better than a law librarian to pull together a listing of Internet sites for lawyers and other legal professionals? Tim Coggins, head of the law library at the University of Richmond, has been in demand for his power-point programs – 60 Sites in 60 Minutes – that track the growing pool of online legal […]

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Larry Bodine, a well-known and well-respected law firm consultant, doesn’t like Twitter. He recently kicked up a storm on the Internet, essentially arguing that the social media outlet has little value for law firms.
He was in Richmond earlier this week, talking to the Virginias Legal Marketing Association. I didn’t go, but all my sales staff […]

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Lawyer Ross Hart in Salem directs our attention to this tuneful YouTube video dedicated to those chained to the timesheet and taking calls from querulous clients.
Hart notes that YouTube offers a number of law-related videos, including clips from memorable depositions such as this one.
By Peter Vieth

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Jane Hawker has worked for for Danville Commonwealth’s Attorney Bill Fuller for almost 40 years.
She plans to retire at the end of the year when Fuller leaves office, and The Register & Bee describes her efforts as Fuller’s administrative assitant to free him from the task of managing the office so that he could concentrate on […]

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When the representative of a sign company told a Chesterfield County committee responsible for regulating signs that there were no complaints about electronic message boards and other displays, Bob Olsen thought, “You want complaints, I’ll give you complaints.”
The Chesterfield Observer reports on his efforts.
By Alan Cooper

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…does a 400 horsepower Dodge Viper get pulled over by an officer on a bicycle.
By Peter Vieth

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The phrase “three amigos” might not conjure up an image of three circuit judges, much less judges in large sombreros – until now that is.
Judges David V. Williams of Martinsville, David A. Melesco of Danville and Clifford R. Weckstein of Roanoke (left to right) agreed to what they called a freewheeling discussion at last week’s […]

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