A Virginia appellate court has, for the first time, set out factors the state’s courts should consider when deciding whether a defense lawyer-turned-prosecutor has been sufficiently screened from a former client’s new case.
“We affirm that a trial court must apply a flexible case-by-case approach in weighing all of these factors along with any other evidence the Commonwealth [of Virginia] may present” when deciding whether a defense-lawyer-turned-prosecutor has been effectively screened away, within the prosecutor’s office, from a former defense client’s new criminal case, wrote the state Court of Appeals in its opinion.
