Weekly Edition
Policeman sentenced for illegal license check
By News in Brief
April 28, 2008
ALEXANDRIA—A Fairfax County police sergeant who pleaded guilty to illegally using police computers to check license plate numbers for a friend has been sentenced to two years of supervised probation.
Federal prosecutors say Sgt. Weiss Rasool didn’t know his friend was the target of a federal investigation and that the plates were on surveillance cars […]
Wise County mine death first in state since 2004
By News in Brief
April 28, 2008
A 61-year-old Virginia man has died after a roof collapse at a Wise County mine, marking the state’s first coal-mining death in more than three years.
David Sizemore of Big Stone Gap was airlifted Tuesday to a Kingsport, Tenn., hospital, where he was pronounced dead a few hours after the accident at Osaka Mine Corporation’s […]
City gets federal money for light rail starter line
By News in Brief
April 28, 2008
NORFOLK—Norfolk’s light rail starter line has received an $18.9 million boost from the federal government.
Federal Transit Administrator James S. Simpson announced the appropriation last week. It’s part of the $128 million the federal government has pledged for the line, which is under construction and is scheduled to begin carrying passengers in early 2010.
The […]
Lexington student takes top honor in VSB’s annual essay competition
By News in Brief
April 28, 2008
Emily Ann Walker, a senior at Rockbridge County High School, has won first place in the 2008 Law in Society Award Competition sponsored by the Virginia State Bar and its Litigation Section.
This is the 16th year for the essay competition, which aims to increase awareness and appreciation of the legal system among Virginia’s high-school […]
W&L law student to be editor of ABA’s ‘Student Lawyer’
By News in Brief
April 28, 2008
Charles E. Gates Jr., a second-year student at the Washington and Lee law school, will be student editor of Student Lawyer magazine for the 2008-09 academic year. Published by the American Bar Association, Student Lawyer provides information and guidance on issues affecting law students across the county.
“I am excited for the opportunities this position […]
Justice Stephenson receives Groot Professionalism Award
By News in Brief
April 28, 2008
Supreme Court Senior Justice Roscoe B. Stephenson Jr. has been named the third recipient of the annual Roger Groot Professionalism Award, given by the Ted Dalton Chapter of the American Inn of Court.
Stephenson received the award at the chapter’s annual meeting and banquet held earlier this month at Roanoke College.
From his early beginnings as a […]
Holocaust Museum to host ABA project, dedicate courtroom exhibit
By News in Brief
April 28, 2008
The Virginia Holocaust Museum will dedicate its Nuremberg Courtroom Exhibit Thursday, May 1, as part of a Rule of Law Conference at the museum.
The conference, organized under the auspices of the American Bar Association World Justice Project, will begin at 9 a.m. with remarks by Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and […]
Illegal Virginia arrest does not require suppression of drugs
By News in Brief
April 28, 2008
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed last week that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law.
The unanimous decision came in a case from Portsmouth, where city detectives seized crack cocaine from a motorist after arresting him for a […]
The coming fight over nursing home arbitration agreements
By Peter Vieth
April 21, 2008
Despite recent national attention to the issue of patient arbitration agreements, Virginia so far has avoided legal controversy over the efforts by some medical providers to keep disputes over medical care out of the courts.
In 2004 and again in 2005, Virginia circuit judges rejected efforts by nursing homes to force medical malpractice claims into binding […]
Fair Credit claims prompt $20M class action settlement
By Alan Cooper
April 21, 2008
Telespectrum, a company that operates call centers, took over a Hampton Roads operation in 2005 and ordered background checks on its new employees.
About 30 reports showed felonies that required dismissal of the employees under Telespectrum’s personnel policies. Several employees insisted their records were wrong, and some of them were allowed to return to work after […]
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