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Southwest Virginia Law Blog

Items of interest to lawyers in Southwest Virginia and beyond.
By Steven R. Minor

Post Frequency: 2.3/day

Last Entry: July 09, 2020 at 12:40:00

Who will win Virginia? How will the vote go in the Southwest Virginia counties?

Posted on November 04, 2008
I'll be chatting up some people during the day.I remember hearing the exit polls during the afternoon, four years ago, and it was all Kerry.

Rare day

Posted on November 02, 2008
The best two stories in today's Bristol paper are this one about roller derby in Johnson City and this one about Billy Wagner.All stories about roller derby or Billy Wagner are good, but I also like the report on the Haysi game and the Wasps' game. I must be going soft in my old age, when the sports section of the Bristol paper starts looking good.

On registering the poor to vote in Virginia

Posted on October 31, 2008
This report describes efforts to get the government of the Commonwealth to get more poor people registered in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act.

Another provocative Daniel Gilbert story

Posted on October 31, 2008
This story in the Bristol paper lets the reader decide whether the son of a circuit court judge got some kind of preferential treatment in the handling of his DUI case. The odd part seems to be not the outcome - which is credibly explained by the prosecutor - but rather the conduct of the hearing in a different room away from the usual assembly of the huddled masses in district court - that's evidently what caused some editor to put this story on the front page, a decision which in itself is interesting and questionable.

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If you write a lot of briefs and use Westlaw and Firefox like I do

Posted on October 30, 2008
You ought to try CiteGenie - it does what it claims to do.

The partial birth abortion case

Posted on October 30, 2008
Here is a Findlaw article on the rehearing in the case over the Virginia partial birth abortion statute, which was also described here in the Richmond paper.And, I'm guessing the Fourth Circuit will go along with the district court and the panel decision.

When you must plead who

Posted on October 29, 2008
In U.S. ex rel. Radcliffe v. Purdue, Chief Judge Jones made a number of interesting rulings, including the issue of pleading fraud under Rule 9(b).

Should teachers be allowed to wear their Obama pins at school?

Posted on October 27, 2008
Julie Hilden opines here that they should.She writes:"Rather than pretending to a false neutrality, teachers should put their views on the table and let students challenge them. Otherwise, we'll be in the anomalous position of having English and History teachers instruct students about how writers and speakers convey their political views, explicitly and implicitly -- while at the same time forcing the teachers to falsely deny that they themselves ever hold or convey such views...

Oates, J.

Posted on October 27, 2008
They got John Oates as a last minute substitute for tonight's World Series game.I wish that Johnny Oates had been there instead.

Wow

Posted on October 24, 2008
Thanks, Paul and Peter and Sherma and Deborah and Alan and the rest at VLW, for a great event.To the rest of the Virginia blogosphere, especially my friends from the meetings way back when in Charlottesville and Martinsville, I say hey, look, a trophy for blogging!

Going to see some people

Posted on October 23, 2008
Here (again) is the list of people I might see this evening in Richmond - an impressive group:? David Baugh. Took job as capital defender for Central Virginia.? Mark D. Braley, Legal Services Corporation of Virginia. Sought filing fees statute to produce money for legal aid...

On the case in the Sixth Circuit

Posted on October 21, 2008
In the case I argued for a Title VII plaintiff last month in Cincinnati, the Sixth Circuit has now issued its decision, reversing the District Court and sending the case back for trial.The opinion by Judge Clay is here.Someone asked me which did I prefer, the Sixth Circuit or the Fourth Circuit...

On representing plaintiffs

Posted on October 17, 2008
Here's an opinion by Judge Turk in a Title VII case denying in part the defendants' summary judgment motion, where we represent a fellow from Pulaski who has become a good friend of mine.

Oh, well

Posted on October 17, 2008
I talked to my mom this morning and she said they were going to what I understood her to say was an "Artesian center" wherever it is they are this week, but she seemed pretty cheerful about it. I thought, hmm, maybe Dad is carrying his long-time hobby of getting water to the farm at Jonesville a bit too far, if he has found some kind of hydrology museum...

Fun items

Posted on October 17, 2008
Liberty's law school is bragging on its 90+% bar passage rate from this summer, as shown here.The Episcopal Church vows here to endeavor to persevere, meaning more church law for the rest of us.This post describes an ERISA case that went to the Fourth Circuit over a $40 dispute...

On biking in the Shenandoah National Park

Posted on October 16, 2008
This piece says - don't ride two abreast in the Park.No problem, I'm sure there's no one I could keep up with anyway.

On the J. Dickson Phillips Distinguished Professor of Law

Posted on October 16, 2008
Here the UNC Law School makes an announcement of the new J. Dickson Phillips Distinguished Professor of Law. Judge Phillips chaired the panel in my first federal appeal, fifteen years ago or more, and made me a fan.

More on the timber case

Posted on October 16, 2008
Here is the Bristol paper's report on the opinion from Magistrate Judge Sargent in our Wise County timber harvest case, including what strikes me as absurd statements from a Sierra Club lawyer.In this case, the state agency was bypassed, and suit was filed to get the federal court to second-guess the federal agency's determination, and then plaintiffs' counsel accuses the defendants of taking advantage of a loophole in the law? I mean, really.

The Sierra Club case

Posted on October 15, 2008
Here is the latest recommendation and report from Magistrate Judge Sargent, in our timber-cutting case out of Wise County.It begins dramatically:"To a child of Appalachia, to see the mountains laid waste, whether by clear?cutting or strip mining, is to witness a dagger plunged into the very bosom from which you sprang and which has sustained you...

On being a "Leader in the Law"

Posted on October 14, 2008
Here the announcement was made that Virginia Lawyers Weekly has included me on a list of Leaders in the Law, with many distinguished people - because of this blog.This kind of makes me wish I'd written something more interesting lately.I thank the readers, old and new, including those at VLW.

That LA Times article on Obama and race in Southwest Virginia

Posted on October 13, 2008
I forgot to post here this LA Times story from October 5, titled "Frank talk of Obama and race in Virginia." The dateline is Whitewood, in Buchanan County, and the story begins:"The isolated towns of Virginia's Appalachian coal region are home to strong labor unions and Democratic political machines that date back generations...

On that cheesy guy from the Times winning the Nobel Prize

Posted on October 13, 2008
Here is Luskin's post on the announcement that Paul Krugman will get the prize.That seems so wrong, to give a distinguished prize to a political shill, who looks so horrible on television.

On setting books free

Posted on October 08, 2008
According to this press release, an author from Bristol has a new book, called Murder Takes The Cake, and has set free one volume of it at the Bristol Starbucks, in the manner of BookCrossing.com.

On the late Judge Matney

Posted on October 08, 2008
Via Nancy and VLW, I saw this article in the Bluefield paper on the memorial for Greg Matney, a district court judge. I never knew him except as a voice on the telephone in a couple of cases. If you wanted to be a judge and only got to be one for a short time, would that be better than not at all? I think so...

On having another birthday

Posted on October 07, 2008
It means that from yesterday until next February, I have the same years as Sarah Palin.

"It's . . the bar exam!"

Posted on October 02, 2008
Here is the LA Times article on the passing of law professor and bar review lecturer extraordinaire, Charles Whitehead.The article says in part:"Evidence of the professor's popularity can be found in a Facebook group called 'Charlie Whitebread Rocks My World...

Another voice heard from

Posted on October 02, 2008
"The Virginia Supreme Court?s recent declaration that the state's anti-spam law is unconstitutional was flat-out wrong."Ken Magill, in this commentary - which is somewhat at odds with the net neutrality principles usually espoused here.Two more mostly negative takes on the opinion in the spam case can be found here and here.

Judge Goodwin denies class certification in DuPont case

Posted on October 01, 2008
Yesterday, in Rhodes v. DuPont, Judge Goodwin of the S.D.W.Va. denied class certification to a claim about an alleged contamination of the public water supply.The Court observed: "The fact that a public health risk may exist is more than enough to raise concern in the community and call government agencies to action, but it does not show the common individual injuries needed to certify a class action...

Another W.D. Va. opinion on causation

Posted on October 01, 2008
In Boysaw v. Purdue Pharma, Chief Judge Jones granted summary judgment on claim against the manufacturer of OxyContin, because the plaintiff could not prove causation. The opinion cites the earlier ruling in McCauley v. Purdue Pharma L.P., 331 F. Supp...

They said it

Posted on October 01, 2008
"To do a decent job, the president of the United States needs to be vastly more educated and knowledgeable than the average American."Paul Campos, here in the Rocky Mountain News."Our leaders are making up their responses from day to day because old ideas of how the economy works have failed them...

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