SEARCH SITE
VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL
- Code of Virginia
- Virginia Administrative Code
- Constitution of Virginia
- Charters
- Authorities
- Compacts
- Uncodified Acts
- RIS Users (account required)
SEARCHABLE DATABASES
- Bills & Resolutions
session legislation - Bill Summaries
session summaries - Reports to the General Assembly
House and Senate documents - Legislative Liaisons
State agency contacts
ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
- Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
- Summaries: Since 1994
Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2007 SESSION
Chairman: Kenneth W. Stolle
Clerk: Fred Hodnett, Richard Fiorella
Staff: J. French, M. Felch, D. Cotter
Date of Meeting: January 24, 2007
Time and Place: Wednesday January 24, 2007. 1/2 hour after adjournment
Patron: Cuccinelli
Psychiatric Inpatient Treatment of Minors Act; special justices. Clarifies that retired judges, substitute judges, and special justices are authorized to perform hearings under the Act and to receive compensation therefor.
Patron: Cuccinelli
Psychiatric Inpatient Treatment of Minors Act; special justices. Clarifies that retired judges, substitute judges, and special justices are authorized to perform hearings under the Act. This bill also authorizes the chief judge of the 2nd Judicial Circuit (Virginia Beach, Northampton, and Accomack) and the chief judge of the 19th Judicial Circuit (Fairfax County) to appoint special justices for the purpose of performing duties required of a judge under this Act. Such appointed judges are to be paid by the locality in which the special justice was appointed. This bill also states that an emergency exists and that the bill shall go into effect from its passage.
EMERGENCY
Patron: Cuccinelli
Involuntary commitment hearings; law students. Provides that it is not the unauthorized practice of law for a third-year law student enrolled at any law school in the Commonwealth to represent a petitioner in a commitment hearing for involuntary admission without the presence of a practicing attorney. The student must have completed coursework in evidence and trial advocacy and training. The student must inform the petitioner that he is not a licensed attorney, that he may not be compensated for his services, and that he can be held liable only for intentional malfeasance.
Patron: Cuccinelli
Mental health; outpatient treatment orders. Changes the criteria for ordering outpatient mental health treatment rather than involuntary inpatient treatment. Strikes the requirement that a person be found to be a danger to himself or others and instead requires a finding that assisted outpatient treatment will be sufficient to prevent him from harming himself or others.
Patron: Cuccinelli
Law-Enforcement Officers Procedural Guarantee Act. Makes several changes as to the process and procedures afforded to officers under the procedural guarantee act, clarifying several existing rights and setting forth specific procedures for the questioning of officers and the conduct of a disciplinary hearing.
Patron: Cuccinelli
Involuntary temporary detention; issuance and execution of order. Modifies one element of the legal standard for involuntary commitment by changing the requirement that individuals present an "imminent danger" to a requirement that individuals present a "significant risk." Emphasizes criteria required for involuntary commitment as found in prior records of treatment and noncompliance with treatment, and demonstrated in reports of witnesses, family members, physicians, or mental health professionals.
Patron: Marsh
Mental health; assisted outpatient treatment. Establishes a program of assisted outpatient treatment for the severely mentally ill. The bill authorizes assisted outpatient treatment only for persons previously hospitalized due to noncompliance with prescribed psychiatric treatment. The bill requires that a specific written treatment plan be prepared by the community services board that gives consideration to the treatment preferences of the individual and explicitly bars the forcible administration of medication. The bill also authorizes law-enforcement personnel to transport the individual to a treatment facility for evaluation by a treatment provider and to ensure compliance with the treatment order only when the individual has substantially failed to comply with the treatment plan without good cause, and only for a 48-hour period, including transportation time. The bill limits the duration of the court order to 180 days or less, and provides the person with procedural protections, including the right to an adversary hearing, the right to counsel, the right to an appeal, and the right to a jury trial on appeal.
Patron: Devolites Davis
Appeal bonds. Provides that fees or costs shall not be assessed or collected for any appeal from order denying bail or fixing terms of bond or recognizance.
Patron: Devolites Davis
Transfer of firearms; criminal records check; penalties. Adds a definition of "firearms show vendor" and requires that a criminal history record information check be performed on the prospective transferee before the vendor may transfer firearms at a gun show. Under current law, only licensed dealers must obtain such a check. The bill also adds the definition of "promoter" and requires that the promoter of a gun show provide vendors with access to licensed dealers who will conduct the criminal background check. The bill also provides that any party who sells, transfers, or trades a firearm shall be immune from all civil liability stemming from the use of the firearm sold, transferred, or traded in the commission of a crime if a criminal background check was conducted prior to the sale, transfer, or trade.
Patron: Devolites Davis
Drunk in public. Provides that a third conviction of being intoxicated in public or profanely cursing in public is a Class 2 misdemeanor (confinement in jail for not more than six months or a fine of not more than $1000, either or both). First and second convictions will remain a Class 4 misdemeanor (a fine of not more than $250).
Patron: Reynolds
Strategic lawsuits against public participation; summary dismissal. Provides that in cases where the right to petition under the Virginia or United States Constitution is invoked as a defense, counterclaim, or cross-claim, a lawsuit brought maliciously and with the intent to harass the party invoking the right to petition may be subject to dismissal. Courts are also given the authority to impose sanctions on the parties bringing such lawsuits.
Patron: Deeds
Methamphetamine precursors; electronic log. Requires that the log currently required to be maintained by sellers of products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or any of their salts or isomers or any salts of isomers must be kept in electronic format. The Board of Pharmacy is required to establish and maintain the log and ensure that the log is capable of checking compliance against all state, local and federal laws, including interfacing with other states to ensure comprehensive compliance.
Patron: Deeds
Involuntary mental health commitment; emergency custody orders. Allows an emergency custody order to include transportation to a medical facility for a pre-admission medical evaluation if required by the hospital to which the person is being transported. The amount of time a person can remain in custody under an emergency custody order is extended from four to six hours to accommodate such an evaluation.
Patron: Norment
Sex offenses prohibiting entry onto school property; penalty. Provides that an adult who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense is guilty of a Class 6 felony if he enters or is present, during school hours, any property he knows or has reason to know is a public or private elementary or secondary school or child day center property, unless he (i) is lawfully voting; (ii) is a student enrolled at the school; or (iii) has received a court order allowing him to enter upon such property. The bill provides that such an adult may petition the juvenile and domestic relations district court or circuit court in the county or city where the school or child day center is located for permission to enter such property. For good cause shown, the court may issue an order permitting the petitioner to enter and be present on such property, subject to restrictions the court deems appropriate.
Patron: Quayle
Income deduction order; remitting payments. Provides that all income deduction orders for support payments require that all employers with at least 100 employees and payroll processing firms with at least 50 clients remit payments under such orders via electronic funds transfer.
Patron: Puller
Conveyance of George Washington's Grist Mill State Park. Specifies that the George Washington's Grist Mill State Park property that the Department of Conservation and Recreation is authorized, pursuant to legislation enacted in 1996 and amended in 1997, to convey to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, Inc., includes parcels that were conveyed to the Department of Conservation and Recreation in 2001.
Patron: Edwards
Methamphetamine precursors; electronic log. Requires that the log currently required to be maintained by sellers of products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or any of their salts or isomers or any salts of isomers must be kept in electronic format. The Board of Pharmacy is required to establish and maintain the log and ensure that the log is capable of checking compliance against all state, local and federal laws, including interfacing with other states to ensure comprehensive compliance.
Patron: Edwards
Involuntary commitment; transportation. Provides that if the law-enforcement agency designated in a temporary detention order to provide transportation is a town agency and there is no town officer reasonably available to transport the person the magistrate shall specify in the order that the county police department or sheriff provide the transportation.
Patron: Saslaw
Possession of weapons; law-enforcement facility. Prohibits the possession of weapons at any law-enforcement facility in the Commonwealth. There is an exception for law-enforcement officers.
Patron: Whipple
Fraudulent application for a credit card. Provides that any person who, for his own benefit and with intent to defraud, makes application in writing for a credit card in the name of another is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Patron: Edwards
Emergency custody order; issuance and execution. Authorizes sheriffs and sheriffs' deputies to execute emergency custody orders.
Patron: McDougle
Sex Offender Registry; penalty. Clarifies that a person convicted of attempt or conspiracy to commit a registerable offense must register. The bill elevates carnal knowledge of a child 13 years of age but less than 15 years of age, which is currently a registerable offense, to a sexually violent offense and makes pandering, which is currently not a registerable offense, a sexually violent offense. The bill makes a first offense (currently a second offense) of production, publication, sale, possession with intent to distribute, and financing of sexually explicit visual material involving children a sexually violent offense. Federal convictions for sex trafficking, abusive sexual contact, and sexual abuse are added as sexually violent offenses. Persons required to register will have to provide palm prints and vehicle registration information for any vehicle they own or operate. Failure to reregister in person within three days following any change in owned or operated vehicle registration information will be a Class 6 felony.
Persons who do not have a continuing duty to register for life must petition the court in order to be relieved of the duty to register. In addition to the current requirement that a petition may not be filed for 10 years after initial registration or a conviction for failure to register, the bill adds that a person may not file a petition for 10 years after conviction of any felony, and that a petition may not be filed until all court-ordered treatment, counseling, and restitution is completed. The court must obtain a copy of the petitioner's complete criminal history and registration history and the Commonwealth must be made a party to the action. The bill has an emergency clause.
EMERGENCY
Patron: McDougle
Sex offender registration; child pornography; penalties. Requires a sex offender to include in the registration information any electronic mail address and any instant messaging screen name that he uses or will use. A sex offender must register any changes in email addresses, instant message, or other identity information within three days of such information changing. The bill defines child pornography as sexually explicit visual material which utilizes or has as a subject a person less than 18 years of age. The bill establishes enhanced penalties for the production, distribution, solicitation, participation, financing, or photographing of child pornography. The bill also clarifies that a person depicted or who presents the appearance of being less than 18 years of age in a sexually explicit manner is prima facie presumed to be less than 18 years of age. The bill repeals § 18.2-374.1:2 but inserts similar language in § 18.2-374.1:1 relating to facilitating payment for or access to child pornography.
Patron: Puller
Insane defendants; restoration of competency. Clarifies the role of the director of the community services board or behavioral health authority in restoring the competency of a defendant who is receiving treatment on an outpatient basis. It also provides that the director is to make and receive reports regarding the competency of the defendant.
Patron: Puller
Persons acquitted by reason of insanity. Replaces certain language throughout Chapter 11.1 of Title 19.2 and adds, where omitted, the term "or behavioral health authority" wherever the term "community services board" appears.
Patron: Cuccinelli
Trespass; knowledge that entry was forbidden. Provides that a person who goes or remains upon residential property or conspires to go or remain upon such property and who knows or reasonably should have known that any resident of such property suffered a substantial personal, physical, mental, or emotional loss, injury, or trauma within the week preceding the entry upon the property is guilty of trespass or conspiring to trespass, regardless of whether the lack of permission to enter the property was communicated to him. Under current law, a person is only guilty of trespass or conspiring to trespass if he has been forbidden, either orally, in writing, or by posted sign, from going onto or remaining on such property.
Patron: Norment
Property damage or personal injury; parental liability. Establishes that parents have a duty to exercise reasonable care so as to control their child and, if this duty is not fulfilled, parents may be held liable to the full extent of property damage or personal injury caused through the actions of the child. Current law caps parental liability at $2,500 for damage to public or private property.
Patron: Norment
Magistrates; issuance of warrants. Amends provision that prohibits magistrates from issuing any warrant or process in complaint of certain relatives of the magistrate, to provide that the magistrate may issue a warrant or process if the relative is a law-enforcement officer acting within the scope of his official duties.
Patron: Norment
Order books; microfilming. Requires the clerk to ensure that order books are microfilmed and that security negative copies are provided to the Library of Virginia for storage.
Patron: Norment
Crimes; maiming of another resulting from operating a watercraft while intoxicated; penalty. Makes it a Class 6 felony to operate a watercraft while intoxicated in violation of § 29.1-738 or any local ordinance substantially similar in a manner so gross, wanton, and culpable as to show reckless disregard for human life, and to unintentionally cause the serious bodily injury of another person resulting in permanent and significant physical impairment. The bill also adds statutes dealing with boating while intoxicated to the statute that allows written reports of blood alcohol tests conducted upon persons receiving medical treatment in a hospital or emergency room to be admissible in evidence as a business records exception to the hearsay rule in prosecutions for DUI.
Patron: Lambert
Petition for release of acquittee. Provides that only when a motion for release from custody is made by the person acquitted by reason of insanity, shall the court order an evaluation by a psychiatrist and psychologist. Currently, this is required when the petition is by either the acquittee or the Commissioner of DMHMRSAS.
Patron: Stolle
Special conservators of the peace. Strikes a provision that special conservators of the peace have authority in any city or county where the corporate applicant or its subsidiary holds title to real property. This provision contradicts the statutory requirement that a conservator's authority is confined to court-imposed geographical limitations within the judicial circuit where the appointment is made.
Patron: Stolle
Appeal bonds. Clarifies that fees or costs shall not be assessed or collected for any appeal from an order denying bail or fixing terms of bond or recognizance. This bill is a recommendation of the Committee on District Courts.
Patron: Reynolds
Assessment of fees on certain drivers; use of fees collected. Requires the courts to impose, in addition to any other penalties imposed, an initial additional fee for certain motor vehicle law offenses. The bill also requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to assess certain fees on any person who has eight or more driver demerit points. These fees, minus cost of collection, will be deposited into the Highway Maintenance and Operating Fund for highway maintenance purposes.
Patron: Hanger
Forensic laboratory services; private police departments. Requires the Department of Forensic Science to provide forensic laboratory services upon request of any private police department employing special conservators of the peace. Private police departments currently have to go through a public law-enforcement agency to submit evidence to the lab.
Patron: Herring
Psychiatric Inpatient Treatment of Minors Act; special justices. Clarifies that retired judges, substitute judges, and special justices are authorized to perform hearings under the Act and to receive compensation therefor.
Patron: Norment
Fees for clerks, sheriffs, etc. Provides that localities are exempt from paying any fees for services rendered by clerks, sheriffs, and other officers for services rendered in cases of the locality where the locality is a party to a case in its own court system or in any other jurisdiction where the locality and the other jurisdiction have a reciprocal waiver of fees agreement. The bill further provides that sheriffs may grant a waiver of sheriff's fees to other localities.
Patron: Norment
Jury sentencing proceeding. Restates, to eliminate any possibility of confusion, the provision in current law that victim impact testimony may be presented at the sentencing proceeding. The bill also allows the punishments imposed on the defendant for prior convictions to be presented to the jury.
Patron: Obenshain
Administrative subpoena; electronic communication service and remote computing service providers. Provides that attorneys for the Commonwealth and law-enforcement officers have the authority to issue administrative subpoenas to obtain records and information from electronic communication service and remote computing service providers. This bill also provides that search warrants may be issued to obtain records and information from service providers located in and outside the Commonwealth and that warrants issued by other states for providers whose principal place of business is in the Commonwealth will be enforced in the Commonwealth.
Patron: Edwards
Crisis intervention pilot programs for persons with mental illness. Permits the Department of Criminal Justice Services to establish crisis intervention team pilot programs in up to six areas of the state by January 1, 2008. The crisis intervention team pilot programs shall assist law-enforcement officers in responding to crisis situations involving persons with mental illness, substance abuse, or both. By November 1, 2007, the Department shall submit to the Joint Commission on Health Care a report outlining the plan for the program. The Department, in consultation with the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, shall establish a training program for all persons involved in the crisis intervention team pilot programs. Each crisis intervention team shall develop a protocol that permits law-enforcement officers to release from custody persons whom they encounter in crisis situations when the crisis intervention team has determined the person is sufficiently stable. The Department shall evaluate and report annually to the Joint Commission on Health Care on the impact and effectiveness of the crisis intervention team pilot programs.
Patron: Howell
Possession of firearms; child day center. Prohibits the possession of a firearm at a child day center. Violation of this section would be a Class 1 misdemeanor. The provisions of this section would not apply to a law-enforcement officer or security guard while in the performance of his official duties.
Patron: Edwards
Mental health courts; pilot program. Directs the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court to establish by January 1, 2008, no less than two and no more than five mental health courts in Virginia for nonviolent offenders with serious mental illnesses.