Legal Notices

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia Adopts Local Rules.

By order entered on March 9, 2010, Chief United States District Judge James P. Jones entered an order adopting Local Rules of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, effective April 8, 2010.  These Rules may be found at http://www.vawd.uscourts.gov/storders/Adoption_of_Local_Rules.pdf.

The following Local Rules are particularly notable:

Title I – General.

• Rule 2(b), Venue in Civil Cases.  By this Rule, a civil action must be brought in the proper division – Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Danville, Abingdon, or Big Stone Gap.  All U.S. Code provisions which govern venue and which reference a “judicial district” or “district” are to be read by substituting for those terms the word “division” in determining the proper division in which a civil action must be filed.

• Rule 7(g)(5), Ineffective Electronic Service.  This Rule states that service by electronic means “is not effective if the party making service learns that the attempted service did not reach the person to be served.”  The Rule does not, however, state how “effective” service is then to be obtained and established for purposes of the Court record.

• Rule 10, Communication with Jurors.  This Rule prohibits any attorney or litigant from interviewing or questioning, personally or through any other person acting on the attorney’s or litigant’s behalf, any juror or alternate juror “during the juror’s term of service as a potential juror,” regarding the verdict or deliberations of the jury in any civil or criminal trial.  The Rule provides the following as the only exception to this Rule – “except by leave of Court upon good cause shown and upon such conditions as the Court in the particular case may fix.”  The typical term of service for a juror in federal court is six months.

• Rule 11, Imposition of Jury Costs.  This Rule gives the Court discretion to “impose the cost of a jury where a case is settled or otherwise disposed of after it is too late to reasonably notify the jury not to appear.”

Title II – Civil Rules.

•  Rule 11, Pleadings and Motions:   Rule 11(c), Briefs Required.  Subsection 1 provides that all motions (except as otherwise may be directed by the Court or as provided in Subsection 2) must be accompanied by a written brief.  The opposing party’s responsive brief is due 14 days after service of the moving party’s initial brief, and the moving party’s rebuttal brief within seven days after service of the opposing party’s brief.  No further briefs may be filed without leave of court.  Subsection 2 provides that briefs need not accompany the following motions.

1. A motion for a more definite statement.

2. Motion for an extension of time to respond to or file pleadings, unless the time has already expired.

3. Motion for a default judgment.

4. Motion for a continuance.

5. Motion to amend pleadings, or to add or substitute parties.

While not requiring a brief, each of these motions must itself state “good cause justifying the relief requested.” 

Also, this subsection seems to justify a “speaking” motion, stating that “a separate brief is not required where a motion itself contains the legal and factual argument necessary to support the motion.”