A lawsuit against Charlottesville’s Development Code will proceed to trial now that Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell has reversed position on a June 30 motion of default judgment.
On September 2, City Attorney John Maddux briefed City Council in public on the next steps and how he’s managed the case so far since taking the position in May. He provided a refresher to date.
“Back in May, an attorney who was representing the city from Gentry Locke failed to meet a filing deadline, failed to file an answer in time, which resulted in early June, the plaintiffs moving for default judgment against the City,” Maddux said, “And on June 30, the court denied our motion for relief from that default judgment and to file a late answer, which, of course, as you know, set us into a tailspin.”
Maddux said the city could have made a claim of legal malpractice against the firm but decided instead to keep them on the case once some protections were in place.
“First of all, we want to protect our financial interests,” Maddux said. “That meant ensuring that the firm would cover our expenses, we would not be paying any fees while they tried to correct this mistake, and they agreed to that. Second of all, we had to ensure that we had competent representation going forward.”
Hiring a new law firm would have meant getting new people up to speed on a case that’s been underway since January 2024. The city negotiated with Gentry Locke and the firm agreed to accept reduced payments while an effort was made to overturn Judge Worrell’s default ruling. If they were not successful, the firm agreed to pay $150,000 in damages to the city.
The city also requested a new lead attorney and Michael Finney with Gentry Locke has stepped into that role.
“We’re very hopeful that when we get the case before the judge on the merits, that we will prevail and the city will have the zoning that you all voted for,” Maddux said.
The next step is for the two parties to resume pre-trial happenings such as discovery and scheduling a new trial. Dates for the June 2026 trial were released once the default judgement was ordered.
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