Richmond judges pick Thorne-Begland
(AP) The Richmond Circuit Court on June 14 appointed a gay Richmond prosecutor to a General District Court judgeship a month after legislators blocked the appointment. Chief Judge Richard D. Taylor Jr....
View ArticleHigh court debuts judicial mentorship program
If you’ve ever been isolated in a new job, wondering who to turn to for answers to simple questions as you learned the ropes, you can appreciate the plight of a rural judge who has just donned the...
View ArticleAppointments by circuit judges would be limited
Sen. Richard H. Black wants to prevent circuit judges from second-guessing the judgeship choices of the General Assembly, but his proposal may cast a wider net than he intended. In the wake of the...
View ArticleWho’s on Obama’s Supreme Court short list?
President Barack Obama’s reelection – and the fact that four of the current nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are at or above the age of 74 – means that the president will likely appoint at least...
View ArticleJudge choices dominate legal highlights for 2012
Judges and judgeships again made headlines in Virginia legal news in 2012, with the General Assembly earning national attention with its rejection of an openly gay candidate for a general district...
View ArticleMcDonnell proposes funding for 15 judgeships
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s budget for fiscal year 2014 includes funding to fill the 15 neediest Virginia trial court vacancies – with one exception – according to raw caseload numbers from the Supreme Court...
View ArticleAssembly makes fast work of judicial elections
Lawmakers have set a fast pace during the 2013 term, a short session for the General Assembly. Members of the House and Senate courts committees were quick to get down to business on Jan. 14, when they...
View ArticleAssembly budget plans would fill more judgeships
Both the House and Senate money committees are more generous to the courts than Virginia’s governor in terms of allocating money for judgeships. The House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees...
View ArticleAssembly trims judge funding plans
The budget approved by the General Assembly Saturday provides money for unfreezing only five extra judgeships in addition to the 15 proposed in Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal. Earlier this month, the...
View ArticleMcDonnell proposes funding 12 additional judgeships
Gov. Bob McDonnell last Tuesday recommended adding an extra 12 judgeships to the 20 already included for funding in the budget approved earlier by the General Assembly. McDonnell’s proposal would spend...
View ArticleAssembly approves judgeship money, elects judges
The Virginia General Assembly approved Gov. Bob McDonnell’s recommendation to add 12 additional judgeships to those funded in the coming two-year budget and then elected judges to a number of those...
View ArticleLoudoun judgeship unfilled after lawyer grilled on abortion
Republican lawmakers have raised a howl in Loudoun County after a Democratic Senator allegedly blocked election of Leesburg lawyer William H. Atwill Jr. to a circuit court judgeship. Based on questions...
View ArticleAssembly funds, but fails to fill, 12 judgeships
After budget wrangling with Gov. Bob McDonnell and a post-midnight session of judicial elections, the 2013 Virginia General Assembly filled less than half of the 49 judicial vacancies in the...
View ArticleToughen up to seek tough job as judge
Being elected as a judge in Virginia may look like a genteel affair, compared to the hurly-burly of direct election as used in other states. But it doesn’t necessarily feel that way to the would-be...
View ArticleChief justice makes plea for filling judgeships
ROANOKE – The head of Virginia’s court system is raising the volume on her call for more money from the state government. “The time has arrived to fund and fill all vacant judgeships,” proclaimed...
View ArticleJudicial selection meets number crunching
When the General Assembly convenes in 2014, the political horse-trading over who gets what judges will have a new data-backed dimension. The process will be informed by the weighted caseload study...
View ArticleTwelve seek federal district court bench seat
The Virginia State Bar reports 12 people have applied to be evaluated by the VSB’s Judicial Candidate Evaluation Committee for the Eastern District vacancy to be created when U.S. District Judge James...
View ArticleBench temps: Substitute judges fill gaps across the state
When it comes to filling temporary vacancies on the bench, Virginia may not have such a deep bench. A sizeable number of lawyers sit as substitute judges all over the commonwealth, and court clerks say...
View ArticleFive judicial candidates deemed ‘highly qualified’
Five candidates for the U.S. district court judgeship to be vacated by Judge James R. Spencer of Richmond when he takes senior status in March have been rated as “highly qualified” by the Virginia...
View ArticleJudge Elder to retire from Court of Appeals
Judge Larry G. Elder will retire from the Court of Appeals of Virginia on Oct. 1 after 22 years on the court. Elder’s announcement provides an opportunity for Gov. Bob McDonnell to fill the position,...
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