Christiansburg government is not unique in having legal woes.
A lawsuit against Christiansburg and some of its employees was settled in favor of the plaintiff (acted upon by council May 1, 2007). Current legal actions seem to be more contractual in nature, such as a boundary line adjustment and negotiating future tax revenue sharing with the county after the Board of Supervisors (BOS) denied a developer's request as presented, or the Tourism Development Council contract.
Every NRV citizen is aware of the BOS lawsuit over the planned Intermodal Rail Yard in Elliston and the Sonic-Big Box battle in Blacksburg. Two other localities, also represented by the same law firm as the Town of Christiansburg, are currently embroiled in court actions.
Christiansburg, long familiar with problems relative to how the town historically interpreted and applied the Freedom of Information Act, should be watching happenings in sister city Radford. Beyond the lawsuit itself, another common denominator appears to be the legal firm (whose own website is defunct), defending a response to requests for information which, when provided, were heavily redacted.
Travel north just a bit, and in Botetourt County you'll find a battle over water rights between those supervisors and a privately developed water company. (Anyone who owned property in the Daleville/Amsterdam/220 North corridor over the last 20 years knows this local government did not prioritize expansion of a public utility network, especially as regards connecting fragmented private water companies.) A common denominator, again, in yet another lawsuit is the legal firm representing the locality.
Sooner or later, elected officials and citizens -- those who manage public resources and those who pay for them -- are going to figure out these legal battles are tremendously expensive, wasting vast amounts of time and money. Residents and business should be asking whether better representation (elected, appointed, contracted, retained or hired) could avoid many of these situations and put tax dollars to better use.