Insights & News

If you are dealing with legal matters in Virginia, it’s essential to understand how Virginia’s judicial system operates, particularly its two primary trial courts: the General District Courts (GDC) and the Circuit Courts. Each court has distinct functions, jurisdiction, and procedures, and understanding these differences is crucial for navigating Virginia’s judicial system.  General District Courts (GDC) in Virginia’s Judicial System  In Virginia’s judicial system, the General District Court (GDC) serves as the first level of the trial court hierarchy. This court typically handles lower-level cases, including misdemeanor crimes, traffic violations, landlord-tenant disputes, and civil claims involving amounts up to $50,000. […]

Litigating a civil dispute in Fairfax County Circuit Court is intimidating to many lawyers, even though the court publishes a manual on its procedures. While there are a number of rules and requirements that the court uses in order to efficiently handle its very large docket and while continuances are heavily disfavored, there are a number of advantages to litigating there, such as the court’s calendar control procedures. Every weekday that the court is open, litigants in Fairfax can appear before a calendar control judge to seek various types of relief. The most common request is probably a continuance, but […]

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is able to keep cases moving quickly enough that it is known as the Rocket Docket and has the fastest average filing to trial time of all federal courts in the nation partly because of its motions practice guidelines. The rules for motions differs between the various divisions, but they all generally allow for motions to be heard and decided quickly. This is especially true in the Alexandria Division, which operates on a motions day system, and allows the parties to immediately know when their motions will be heard. The […]