7 canonical passages across 6 cases, quoted by 113 opinions in total. These passages cluster together because the same opinions keep quoting them side by side — they state parts of one doctrine. The anchor passage is from West v. Commonwealth.
| # | Case | Flag | Canonical passage | Citers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West v. Commonwealth Anchor | green | “no ruling of the trial court . . . will be considered as a basis for reversal unless an objection was stated with reasonable certainty at the time of the ruling, except for good cause shown or to enable this court to attain the ends of justice.” | 32 |
| 2 | Timothy Kenneth Bartley v. Commonwealth of Virginia | green | “it is not the role of the courts, trial or appellate, to research or construct a litigant's case or arguments for him or her.” | 24 |
| 3 | Timothy Kenneth Bartley v. Commonwealth of Virginia | green | “where a party fails to develop an argument in support of his or her contention or merely constructs a skeletal argument, the issue is waived.” | 23 |
| 4 | Burke v. Catawba Hospital | green | “nor is it this court's 'function to comb through the record . . . in order to ferret-out for ourselves the validity of appellant's claims.” | 15 |
| 5 | Alfred Banks, Jr. v. Commonwealth of Virginia | green | “cannot 'consider issues touched upon by the appellant's argument but not encompassed by his assignment of error” | 8 |
| 6 | Auer v. Commonwealth | green | “the word 'include' in a statute generally 'implies that the provided list of parts or components is not exhaustive and, thus, not exclusive.” | 7 |
| 7 | West v. West | green | “it is not the function of this court to 'search the record for error in order to interpret the appellant's contention and correct deficiencies in a brief.” | 4 |
A red or yellow flag on a member means the underlying case has negative treatment — for those, check the case page before relying on the passage.