Recently, I was chosen by Virginia Lawyers Weekly as one of its “Leaders in the Law” for 2010.

Thursday, October 7, 2010 was a normal, sunny blue-sky day in my firm’s high-rise office building, until it wasn’t. In mid-afternoon, it all started with hearing a loud bang, feeling a jolt through my chair and seeing the power flicker briefly, then no other sign of trouble. My Thursday was back to normal. Or so [...]

The second significant local government law opinion from the Virginia Supreme Court in September was County of Albemarle v. Keswick Club, L.P. (Keswick II). This opinion addresses what happens after a finding that an assessor has failed to consider and properly reject alternate valuation methods. After such a “failure,” what is the “next step” a [...]

The Virginia Supreme Court handed down two significant cases on local government law on September 16, 2010. One was a proffered zoning case. Arogas v. Frederick County BZA deals with a proffer amendment made by the Board of Supervisors at the meeting but after the public hearing, and agreed to in writing by the landowner [...]

In our September 10 post, we discussed Augusta County’s success in seeking sanctions against a pro se attorney for improper assessment challenge. This post will discuss how Louisa County, with help from Sands Anderson PC‘s Mike Charnoff, successfully obtained sanctions against an environmental group’s lawyer and some of his clients, and reference other successes that [...]

The Virginia Supreme Court released two opinions directly impacting local government law today. Discussion of the two cases will follow in subsequent posts. Here is the Virginia Supreme Court’s summary of the case opinions: 091502 Arogas, Inc. v. Frederick County Board of Zoning Appeals 09/16/2010 In a certiorari and declaratory judgment challenge to an action [...]

Localities infrequently seek sanctions. Why is this? In this author’s opinion, courts have traditionally been reluctant to grant motions for sanctions.

The one-year anniversary of the Sands Anderson Virginia Local Government Law blog came and went on July 24. Anniversaries, like birthdays, are opportunities to look back and celebrate.

Today is filming day at Sands Anderson! I spent about an hour being filmed for various video clips that will be used on my firm website page, and on this blog page, www.VaLocalityLaw.com. Other lawyers from various teams are also being filmed.

Sands Anderson is a blogging law firm. If you go to our firm website home page, you will see the eleven blogs (at this time) supported by the lawyers of Sands Anderson PC. Although this is a Virginia local government blog, often the firm’s blogs will discuss a topic of interest to Virginia local government [...]