Disgraced Christiansburg attorney Gerard Marks will serve 11 months in jail for forging judges' signatures and passing fraudulent legal documents, a judge ruled this afternoon.

Marks, formerly a prominent New River Valley attorney, pleaded guilty in November to seven counts of forgery. According to a Virginia State Police investigation, between 1999 and 2007 Marks forged the signatures of Montgomery County Circuit Court judges Bobby Turk and Ray Grubbs on divorce and adoption decrees and other legal paperwork.

The plea deal accepted today by substitute judge Ford Quillen of Gate City was struck minutes before the sentencing between special prosecutor Joel Branscom and Marks. The agreement kept Marks out of prison. Branscom said earlier in the case he would seek a sentence of up to two years in prison.

Marks was stripped of his law license in October, a month before his conviction.

Branscom said that first offenses of the kind Marks committed generally result in probation, not jail time. But the nature of Marks' crimes struck at the heart of the justice system and required a stiffer punishment.

Marks declined to comment and to date has offered no explanation for his actions.