Which cities do the writ panels actually meet? Do panels usually meet in an unused courtroom in the local courthouse?
The Supreme Court’s writ panels almost always meet in the Supreme Court building at Ninth and Franklin Streets in Richmond. The exception is that the court “goes on the road” during some summer panel meetings, to varying locations around the Commonwealth. In those instances, the court tries to schedule “local” cases for argument, to cut down on attorneys’ travel time and to enable litigation to proceed relatively close to where the trial took place. On these instances, the court does indeed use courtrooms in local courthouses. The Court of Appeals meets in four different locations – Chesapeake, Salem, Alexandria, and the “home court” in Richmond, at Eighth and Franklin. It is possible that the court may convene occasional writ panels (for criminal and traffic cases only) in other locations. By the way, the Fourth Circuit also goes on the road from time to time. It may convene in courthouses or even in law schools scattered about the circuit. But the great majority of those arguments ar
