THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, September 27, 1994            TAG: 9409270338
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                           LENGTH: Short :   33 lines

GILMORE ASKS HIGH COURT TO REHEAR RATE LAWSUIT

Attorney General James S. Gilmore III asked the Virginia Supreme Court Monday to take another shot at a telephone regulation case that was decided by a rare tied vote.

Four days after hearing arguments, the court said Sept. 16 that it was deadlocked 3-3 on the lawsuit involving the state's largest phone companies. The court has seven members, but Justice Leroy Hassell had excused himself from the case.

The ruling upheld a State Corporation Commission decision that had been challenged by consumer advocates and long-distance telephone companies.

The attorney general's office, the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, AT&T Corp. and MCI Telecommunications Corp. had argued that the SCC improperly extended an experimental plan for loosening regulations last year to the harm of telephone ratepayers.

They asked the court to overturn the SCC decision to extend the experiment without public notice.

Lawyers for the SCC and Bell Atlantic-Virginia Inc. said the extension was necessary to prevent the experiment from lapsing while state regulators evaluated the companies' performance. by CNB