The Virginia Appellate Lawyer’s Court of Appeals of Virginia Blog

With the state government taking an extended break for Thanksgiving, the Court of Appeals issued 4 published opinions and 3 unpublished one on the last full day of work this week.  It’s not atypical for the appellate courts to issues a flurry of opinions at this time of year as they try to wrap up pending cases before the “second half of December rule” kicks in – If you are not familiar with the rule, you are certainly familiar with its effect – Nobody does diddly the second

Have you noticed that, according to their critics, American politicians are concurrently Nazis (imposing vaccine mandates/separating immigrant families), Socialists (expanding Medicaid/favoring specific industries), Communists (Infrastructure spending/umm . . . no right wing equivalent here, sorry), and Anarchists (defunding the police/eliminating environmental regulations) and above all <gasp> Capitalists (just about every other policy initiative of both parties)? That’s a p

In the short time that this blawg has been in existence, I have had the pleasure of meeting several of its readers.  The most common comment I have received in these encounters is that the humor with which I tend approach my subjects is appreciated.  But there is nothing at all humorous about the one published opinion from the Court of Appeals released today. James A. Fields, s/k/a James Alex Fields v. Commonwealth of Virginia is the appeal of the 1st degree murder conviction

Following your humble correspondent’s first appearance as an advocate before the Supreme Court of Virginia this morning, his schedule has become sufficiently flexible to allow him to play catch-up and report on the three most recent published opinion of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, two of which were released last week and the third this morning, all three from criminal cases. Kimberly Paul Barney v. Commonwealth of Virginia is an appeal following remand after the Court r