Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Pay up and hopefully shut up

Augusta County Circuit Court Judge Victor Ludwig ruled that Francis Chester neither did his homework nor followed the Code of Virginia in his suit against Augusta County's 2009 real estate reassessments. In short, he filed a frivolous lawsuit. The judge ordered Chester to pay a $2,000 sanction, writing in his opinion,
...the purpose of the court in imposing sanctions is not to 'silence' an attorney who pleads a poor case. It is to attempt to ensure that he pleads a better one next time.
Back in October I watched Mr. Chester stumble and bumble in court and tossed in my 2¢ by urging that he be fined. Judge Ludwig made the right decision and imposed a very reasonable fine. Of course, Chester's buddy, swacgirl, who once compared him to Thomas Jefferson, is POed.
The only part of the judge's decision with which I disagree is hope that a sanction will ensure Chester will actually plead a better case next time. Dreaming the impossible dream.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I certainly hope the Newsleader prints a much more in depth story on this. I mean the News Virginian covered it very well in their article today about it.

Mary said...

I hear Chester has done this recusal act before with a district court judge or two. Maybe circuit court too. Problem is, Chester is a fool, doesn't know or follow proper procedures, burdens the judge and staff with absurd requests/questions he ought to know the answers to. People talk about removing incompetent teachers, VDOT workers, etc. Where is the Bar Assn in situations like this?

Here's the NV story
http://www2.newsvirginian.com/wnv/news/local/churchville/article/chester_asks_for_judges_recusal_after_sanctions/50645/