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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
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Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2011 SESSION
Edwards (Chairman), Quayle, Lucas, Puller, Obenshain, Saslaw, Petersen
Clerk: Angi Murphy, Cheryl Law
Staff: J. French, M. Felch, K. Stokes
Date of Meeting: January 20, 2011
Time and Place: 4:00pm/4 East Conf. Rm.
REVISED- Added SB 827; SB 1407
Patron: Reynolds
Preliminary protective orders. Makes the prohibition on purchasing and transporting a firearm applicable to persons subject to preliminary protective orders that contain a finding of abuse. Under current law, persons subject to a preliminary protective order are prohibited from purchasing or transporting a firearm regardless of any court finding.
Patron: Reynolds
Preliminary protective orders. Makes the prohibition on purchasing and transporting a firearm applicable to persons subject to preliminary protective orders that contain a finding of abuse or neglect. Under current law, persons subject to a preliminary protective order are prohibited from purchasing or transporting a firearm regardless of any court finding.
Patrons: Saslaw, Norment
Medical malpractice cap. Sets the maximum amount recoverable in a medical malpractice action arising from an act or acts of malpractice occurring on or after July 1, 2012, at $2.05 million. Currently the limit is $2 million. The $2.05 million limit will increase by $50,000 annually each July 1 thereafter until July 1, 2031, which shall be the final annual increase.
Patron: McEachin
Jurisdictional limits of courts. Increases from $15,000 to $25,000 the maximum civil jurisdictional limit of general district courts.
Patron: Obenshain
Expert witnesses; literature designations. Provides that if any party, during the direct examination of his own expert witness, intends to rely on statements in treatises, periodicals, or pamphlets previously designated by an opposing party, copies of such specific statements must be provided to all parties within 10 days after receipt of the opposing party's designation unless ordered by the court. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference.
Patron: Obenshain
Attorney liability to client. Removes language from statute authorizing attorney malpractice actions that provides that damages not exceeding 15%, in lieu of interest, may be awarded against the attorney. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference.
Patron: McEachin
Professions; lawyers; client accounts. Repeals the provision prohibiting the Supreme Court from adopting a disciplinary rule requiring that lawyers deposit client funds in an interest-bearing account.
Patron: Edwards
Electronic notaries. Provides that a person applying to be commissioned as an electronic notary public is not required to be commissioned as a notary public first. The bill also allows, in the case of an electronic notarization, a notary to notarize a document when the signer is not in the notary's presence if satisfactory evidence of the identity is established. Furthermore, the bill allows satisfactory evidence to be based on video or audio conference technology that permits the notary to communicate with and identify the principal at the time of the notarial act.
Patron: Petersen
Issuance of civil investigative demands under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. Provides that the Attorney General may not issue a civil investigative demand to a Virginia public institution of higher education when the claim relates to a matter of academic inquiry or research.
Patron: Petersen
Immunity of officers, etc. of nonprofits; dissolution. Provides that the immunity from civil liability the directors and other officers of tax exempt organizations enjoy for acts taken in their official capacities shall survive the dissolution or other discontinuance of the organization.
Patron: Petersen
Speech or debate immunity; local officials. Provides that local officials who are members of public bodies with legislative powers are immune from civil liability or criminal prosecution for any speech or debate engaged in by the officials during the exercise of such powers, and that they shall not be compelled by law to be questioned on such speech or debate in any other place without leave of court. The public body still retains its authority to regulate the conduct of its members.
Patron: McEachin
Court fees. Increases from $10 to $14 the additional court fees that are collected, upon commencement of a civil action in circuit or general district court, in cities and counties in which free, civil legal representation is provided for the poor by a nonprofit legal aid program organized under the auspices of the Virginia State Bar. The bill also changes from $9 to $13 the amount that, from such additional fee, is to be credited to the Virginia State Bar's Legal Aid Services Fund.
Patron: McDougle
Property conveyance. Authorizes the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to grant and convey a permanent easement and right-of-way across the bed of the Piankatank River and a permanent easement and right-of-way across the bed of the Narrows, including a portion of the Baylor Survey, to Virginia Electric and Power Company (Dominion Virginia Power), for the purpose of installing and operating a submarine electric distribution cable system.
Patron: Marsh
Property transfer; Virginia Commonwealth University: City of Richmond. Authorizes the board of visitors of Virginia Commonwealth University to convey certain real property to the City of Richmond. Under the bill, the property must be used for the official Richmond Slave Trail located in the Richmond, Virginia and that such use must commence within five years of the conveyance. If these conditions are not met, the property shall revert to the board of visitors of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Patron: Miller, J.C.
Servicemembers and veterans courts. Establishes the Servicemembers and Veterans Court Act. The bill allows the establishment of servicemembers and veterans courts as specialized court dockets within the existing structure of Virginia's court system, offering judicial monitoring of intensive treatment and supervision of offenders who appear to suffer from mental illness, alcohol or drug abuse, posttraumatic stress disorder, or traumatic brain injury, any of which appear to be related to military service, including, readjustment to civilian life. A state military members and veterans court advisory committee is established and localities intending to establish servicemembers and veterans courts are required to establish advisory committees. The Supreme Court of Virginia is given administrative oversight for the implementation of the Act.
Patron: Edwards
Judicial retirement; mandatory retirement. Adjusts the mandatory retirement age under judicial retirement to age 73. Currently, judges are required to retire at age 70. This bill is a recommendation of the Judicial Council.
Patron: Edwards
Fees collected by circuit court clerks. Clarifies that the filing of a counterclaim or any other responsive pleading in annulment, divorce and separate maintenance proceedings is not subject to the $60 fee charged by circuit court clerks. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference.
Patron: Wagner
Conveyance of state-owned bottomlands. Creates an administrative procedure that allows the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to convey title to filled subaqueous bottomlands if the applicant can provide evidence that such fill was lawfully deposited. The bill also removes the requirement that grantees compensate the Commonwealth in an amount equivalent to 25 percent of the assessed value of the specified parcel. Grantees will pay a fee to the Commonwealth in an amount reasonably related to the costs to effect the conveyance.
Patron: Quayle
Child abduction. Provides that a chief judge shall designate a judge to hear and dispose of proceedings in which a person seeks enforcement of an order for the return of a child under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The bill also makes it a duty of the Missing Children Information Clearinghouse to maintain close liaison with the National Crime Information Center and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for the exchange of information on children suspected of international travel. Furthermore, the bill makes property used to further the abduction subject to lawful seizure and forfeiture.
Patron: Marsden
Nonjudicial records; costs. Provides that the party requesting a subpoena or on whose behalf an attorney-issued subpoena duces tecum was issued for nonjudicial records is liable for the reasonable charges of the Commonwealth or of any political subdivision or agency of the Commonwealth, including searching, copying, and mailing the items produced.
Patron: Smith
Property transfer; Department of General Services; Mennel Milling Company. Authorizes the Department of General Services to convey certain real property to the Mennel Milling Company located in Roanoke County, Virginia. The property is in exchange for three parcels of land for use by the Virginia Department of Transportation for an area maintenance headquarters to serve the southwestern portion of Roanoke County. The bill includes an emergency clause.
EMERGENCY
Patron: Edwards
Courts of record; courts not of record; judicial circuits and districts; number of judges. Establishes new boundaries for the various judicial circuits and districts of the Commonwealth and reallocates the number of judges serving such circuits and districts. The bill contains technical amendments. This bill is effective July 1, 2012.
Patron: Edwards
Commonwealth's lien for payment of medical services; limitations. Provides that a lien granted to the Commonwealth against any recovery from a third party obtained by an injured person whose medical costs were paid pursuant to the Virginia Medical Assistance Program shall only attach to the portion of the claim representing compensation for medical expenses incurred by the injured person. In the course of determining the amount of the Commonwealth's lien, a court may determine the fairness of any allocation of the proceeds from a claim for medical expenses. The bill is intended to bring Virginia law in conformity with the United States Supreme Court's decision in Arkansas Dep't of Health & Human Servs. v. Ahlborn, 547 U.S. 268, 126 S.Ct. 1752, 164 L.Ed.2d 459 (2006).
Patron: Ruff
Department of Conservation and Recreation; conveyance of property. Authorizes the Department of Conservation and Recreation to divest itself of certain properties that were conveyed to it by Norfolk Southern Railroad for the High Bridge Trail State Park. These properties have no potential utility to the High Bridge Trail State Park and the divestiture would eliminate any liability to the Department associated with the private use of property by adjacent landowners, which preceded the donation by Norfolk Southern Railroad.
Patron: McEachin
Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. Repeals the authority of the Attorney General to issue civil investigative demands.
Patron: Locke
Electronic filing in civil or criminal proceedings. Provides that clerks may charge a fee of $25 for civil or criminal proceedings filed electronically and an additional $10 fee for subsequent filings in such proceedings. The fee will be deposited into the clerk's local fund to cover operational expenses of the electronic filing system. The bill clarifies that clerks may provide official certificates and certified copies of records that contain personal identifying information electronically upon request of a party or attorney. The bill also confirms the clerks' authority to charge a fee for electronic notarization of $25 per notarization consistent with the fees allowed for notarization under Title 47.1 (Notaries and Out-of-State Commissioners) and raises from $5 to $25 the maximum fee per official certificate accompanying certified records. The bill also makes various changes to clerks' duties regarding electronic filing.
Patron: Ruff
Line of Duty Act; fire company personnel of the Virginia National Guard and the Virginia Air National Guard. Includes under the coverage of the Line of Duty Act individuals employed as fire company personnel for the Virginia Air National Guard or the Virginia National Guard's Fort Pickett Reserve.