Valuable Unpublished Law Opinions Available Online

In 1975 Blackwell N. Shelley was appointed judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. During more than 25 years on the bench, Judge Shelley was well known for his clear and accurate analyses of bankruptcy law. After his death, office copies of his opinions were donated to the William Taylor Muse Law Library, University of Richmond School of Law.

The Shelley Bankruptcy Collection contains almost 600 opinions written by Judge Shelley during his career. More than half of these opinions have never before been published. The opinions encompass most of the prominent bankruptcy cases in eastern Virginia for the last quarter of the twentieth century, including the landmark A. H. Robins & Co. bankruptcy that resulted from the Dalkon Shield litigation.

When finished, this project will allow users to retrieve PDF files of Judge Shelley’s opinions. The system will also allow searching and retrieval by case name, full text, or through headnotes of the legal issues discussed in each case.