Eugene Volokh runs across one of the peculiarities of the practice of law in Virginia:
I just ran across this mysterious emotion, er, motion — “craving oyer” — in a Virginia case. This sentiment seems over 40 years dead in most places, but in the Old Dominion it’s still going strong.
Well, this is Virginia. We didn’t even merge law and equity until two years ago. And, as I said to a Judge in Loudoun County just yesterday, we’re about the only state left in the United States where you can cite a case decided by the Virginia Supreme Court in 1834, which deals with a property issue that goes back to 1774, and still have it considered good law.
