The authority of Virginia’s juvenile-court judges is being usurped by prosecutors and higher courts in a process that too often mixes juvenile offenders and adults and that helps transform juvenile lawbreakers into career felons, according to a study released today. “Putting youth in the adult system ultimately makes communities less safe,“ the study says.

Virginia courts are feeling the impact of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prosecutors must make forensic examiners available for defense cross-examination about lab reports on drugs, ballistics and other trial evidence. Defense attorneys began citing the ruling soon after it was issued June 25, even though the attorney general’s office contends that state courts are still bound by a somewhat different Virginia Supreme Court decision.

Treating petty, nonviolent misdemeanors as infractions rather than crimes would save millions of dollars and better protect defendants’ rights without hurting public safety, according to a study commissioned by criminal defense attorneys.

Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty to six terrorism-conspiracy counts in 2005. Lawyers for al-Qaida plotter Zacarias Moussaoui are hoping to win a new trial, arguing to a federal appeals panel in Richmond yesterday that his 2005 guilty plea was invalid. “Moussaoui’s plea was uncounseled [and] unknowing,“ Justin S. Antonipillai told a three-judge panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Chesterfield County Circuit Court Clerk Judy L. Worthington yesterday lost her appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia in a struggle with her court’s chief judge, Michael C. Allen. In a brief order, the justices turned down Worthington’s challenge of an order from Allen that a local lawyer be authorized to perform marriages and that his name be added to a county Web site list of those who can perform marriages.

Chesterfield County Circuit Court Clerk Judy L. Worthington is suing the chief Circuit Court judge in a turf spat, among other things, over the county’s Web site. Worthington complains that in November, Judge Michael C. Allen issued an order authorizing lawyer Aubrey M. Davis Jr. to perform marriages. The order directed that Davis’ name be added to a list of people authorized to do so on the clerk’s page of the county Web site.

The Virginia Supreme Court recently affirmed that wrongful-death settlements are public documents that cannot be kept confidential.