The second significant local government law opinion from the Virginia Supreme Court in September was County of Albemarle v. Keswick Club, L.P. (Keswick II).

This opinion addresses what happens after a finding that an assessor has failed to consider and properly reject alternate valuation methods. After such a “failure,” what is the “next step” a trial court must take? What is the burden of the taxpayer at this point? Importantly, such a “failure” is not “error.” There are plenty of Virginia Supreme Court cases describing what happens after “manifest error.” But what happens after this sort of “failure?”