Two civil suits filed by victims' families unhappy with the response to the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech shootings have reopened old wounds, posed new questions and brought to light new documents two years after the deaths of 33 students and faculty.

The cases have also caused of flurry of activity in Richmond, from Gov. Tim Kaine's office to the Virginia Supreme Court, which must now appoint a special judge to oversee the suits transferred in June to Montgomery County.

The county's five circuit court judges recused themselves last week from the suits and petitioned the state's highest court to appoint a special judge to oversee them.

"A lot of individuals are named as defendants. ... We know a lot of these people. We have personal and professional relationships with these people. ... All of us have one or more conflicts," Chief Circuit Court Judge Colin Gibb said.

While not an everyday occurrence, recusals of the entire circuit, which includes five judges, are not uncommon, Gibb said. If, for example, an attorney who practices before the court is brought up on charges, the judges in the circuit will ask for a special judge to be appointed.

It's unclear when the high court might name a special judge, but Gibb said it generally happens quickly. Until the appointment is made, Gibb, who is based in Pulaski, will oversee any necessary administrative duties.

Celeste and Grafton Peterson, and Harry and Karen Pryde filed their suits in April on the second anniversary of the shootings. In a statement at the time, the families said university officials' "misstatements of facts" since the day of the shootings persuaded them that the "complete truth" remains hidden.

"What may be efforts to manage the truth through distortion have led us to the unfortunate conclusion that we must file suit," the statement said.

The suits each ask for $10 million in damages for the deaths of their daughters, Nicole Peterson and Julia Pryde.

They allege negligence in the handling of Seung-Hui Cho's ongoing mental health and behavioral problems in the two years before the shootings, and failure by university officials to follow established guidelines for responding once the shootings began.

The suits claim in part that in the aftermath of the tragedy, university officials were more concerned about Tech's image than about students' safety and that three Cook Counseling Center employees who had contact with Cho on separate occasions either didn't make records of that contact, as required by law, or later lost or destroyed those records.

Records of those contacts came to light on July 16, when former Cook Counseling Center Director Robert Miller turned in several pages of Cho's mental health records found in his Blacksburg home. Miller, who was removed as counseling center director two months after Cho was seen there, is named as a defendant in both suits.

According to a statement issued late last month by Miller's attorney, Ed McNelis, Miller found the missing documents while searching for information that "might be relevant to the civil suit."

Miller inadvertently mixed Cho's records and those of several other students with his personal documents as he packed to leave the center in February 2006, according to the statement.

Miller was then transferred to a counseling position in the human resources department, where he worked until retiring in 2008. He is currently listed as a faculty member at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg.

When asked by university officials shortly after the shootings if he knew the whereabouts of the records, Miller said no, officials have said. It's unclear whether state police interviewed Miller then and unknown if he searched for the records at the time.

Kaine has said he will ask Cho's estate to release the recovered documents for public review. In a letter sent last week to Kaine, 62 victims and family members of victims asked the governor to reconvene the panel that investigated the tragedy and issued a lengthy report that was especially critical of Tech's handling of Cho and his problems.

Kaine has said he is not inclined to reconvene the panel but will ask staff to correct the panel's report based on new information. Families and others involved have until Aug. 19 to submit corrections.