Local Burn Restrictions (2012/2/2)

Current list of localities with additional outdoor fire restrictions currently in effect.

Fire Situation Report (2012/2/2)

The Fire Situation Report from the Virginia Department of Forestry's Resource Protection Division. This report is updated each workday during the spring and fall fire seasons.

The Winter Meeting (2012/1/21)

Again this year as in '06, '07, '08, '09, and '11, I am in Williamsburg for the winter meeting of The Virginia Bar Association, and pleased to see many of my favorite people. This morning ends Pia Trigiani's year as president of the Association, and I was amused to meet her law partner David Mercer yesterday at the meeting of this committee , he is a hoot and a half. The next president Hugh Fain told me he saw where I had blogged about the suit he filed for the Rick Perry campaign. I saw the Chief Justice at the venue yesterday with her husband, and was reminded that she told me when I first met him years ago he was a much better-known local celebrity as a high school football coach than she was as a federal magistrate judge.

No brainer (2012/1/13)

I hope that you will agree that the Stop Online Piracy Act is an abomination, sponsored by Southwest Virginia's own Congressman Goodlatte of all people for no apparent reason. It seems to me that empowering the courts to close off parts of the Internet through injunctions in the name of copyright protection is anti-business and anti-American - sounds more like China or Iran - and would represent the triumph of a small group of well-connected companies over the public interest. People are choosing to own fewer albums, legally or illegally , and messing with the Internet is not going to do anything to make more money for record companies.

SWCC has announced that the campus will be closed effective 7:45 a (2012/1/13)

SWCC has announced that the campus will be closed effective 7:45 a.m. on Friday January 13 due to inclement weather. SWCC Alert is powered by Cooper Notification RSAN

SWCC has announced the college will be on a late schedule effective Friday, January 13 due to inclem (2012/1/12)

SWCC has announced the college will be on a late schedule effective Friday, January 13 due to inclement weather. Classes will begin at 10:00 am. See a list of late schedule class meeting times at http://www.sw.edu/lateschedule.htm SWCC Alert is powered by Cooper Notification RSAN

The next ASL dean from Louisiana (2012/1/6)

I read today that the Appalachian School of Law has appointed Lucy S. McGough , a law professor on the faculty of the Louisiana State University, as its next Dean, to replace my good friend Wes Shinn, who himself was a Louisiana lawyer. The press release is here .

SWCC is on a two hour delay effective 1/3/12 due to inclement weather (2012/1/2)

SWCC is on a two hour delay effective 1/3/12 due to inclement weather. Offices open at 10:00 am SWCC Alert is powered by Cooper Notification RSAN

Lincoln Memorial sues ABA over denial of law school accreditation (2011/12/29)

As reported here , the law school of Lincoln Memorial University has filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee against the American Bar Association for its denial of provisional accreditation to the new LMU law school in Knoxville. The judge assigned to the case is Thomas Varlan. In 2003, an ABA committee rated Judge Varlan "qualified" to be a federal judge by a split decision, with a minority of those voting finding him to be "not qualified," as shown here .

More on the Virginia Republican primary ballot (2011/12/29)

Here is a link to the memorandum filed on behalf of the Rick Perry campaign in support of its motion for a temporary injunction against the application of the requirements of Va. Code 24.2-545 that would keep Perry off the primary ballot in Virginia. Rick Hasen had this preliminary take on the litigation, the gist of which is that it was filed too late. Discussion of the desirability or feasibility of changing the Virginia statutes to let other candidates on the ballot or to be "write-in" candidates through legislation in the upcoming session of the General Assembly can be read here in the Christian Science Monitor, here in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, this commentary from the Richmond paper, this article says both Patrick McSweeney and Paul Goldman are on board to get the laws changed, a...

On the Rick Perry lawsuit (2011/12/28)

I read with interest the Complaint filed by my friend Hugh Fain on behalf of the Rick Perry campaign, seeking relief from the campaign's failure to meet the statutory requirements contained in Va. Code 24.2-545 to get on the ballot for the Republican Presidential primary in Virginia. It raises two claims, the first is that the residency requirement for petition "circulators" is unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment, based on Buckley v. American Constitional Law Foundation, 525 U.S. 182 (1999) . The second is that the requirement of signatures from 10,000 qualified voters with at least 400 qualified voters from each congressional district in the Commonwealth is itself unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment. The Complaint seeks injunctive relief against the e...

The year in review, according to lawyer-bloggers (2011/12/13)

This password-protected article by Deborah Elkins in VLW includes quotes from me, appellate guru Steve Emmert from Virginia Beach, appellate guru Jay O'Keefe from Gentry Locke in Roanoke, John Tarley in Williamsburg, Jim Kinsel from Northern Virginia, construction lawyer Chris Hill , Richmond litigator Dabney Carr , Crimlaw's Ken Lammers from Wise County, Josh Silverman , Qui Tam blogger Zachary Kitts , and local government law expert Andrew McRoberts .

SWCC has announced the college will be on a late schedule effective Thursday 12/8 due to inclement w (2011/12/7)

SWCC has announced the college will be on a late schedule effective Thursday 12/8 due to inclement weather. Classes will begin at 10:00 am. See a list of late schedule class meeting times at http://www.sw.edu/lateschedule.htm SWCC Alert is powered by Cooper Notification RSAN

SWCC has announced that evening classes are canceled effective 4 p (2011/12/7)

SWCC has announced that evening classes are canceled effective 4 p.m. on Wednesday December 7 due to inclement weather. SWCC Alert is powered by Cooper Notification RSAN

On the perils of appellate practice (2011/12/2)

In the past few days, three opinions have cracked down on abusive tactics in appellate litigation: In Gonzalez-Servin v. Ford Motor Company , Judge Posner compared counsel to an ostrich for failure to address recent precedent - with funny pictures. In Kim v. Westmoore Partners , a California appeals court fined counsel $10,000, for doing things like asking for more time to write a brief and then cribbing almost entirely from another brief the same lawyer had filed in an earlier case. Today, the Fourth Circuit in Matter of Liotti gave a public reprimand to a lawyer for inaccuracies in his characterization of the record and the facts.

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