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2012 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Courts of Justice

Chairman: Thomas K. Norment, Jr.

Clerk: Angi Murphy, Cheryl Law
Staff: J. French, M. Felch, K. Walsh
Date of Meeting: March 2, 2012
Time and Place: 9:30 AM - Senate Room B
Revised -- HB 8 added

H.B. 8

Patron: Edmunds

Reporting of vessel accident; penalty.  Requires any passenger 18 years of age or older who is a passenger in a vessel that is involved in an accident resulting in serious bodily injury or death and in which the operator has (i) failed to stop and render assistance, and (ii) failed to report the accident in accordance with procedures established by the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries to notify, within a reasonable time, a law-enforcement officer, conservation police officer or by the operator or any other person in the vessel, or an officer of the Virginia Marine Police. If such a report is not filed, the passenger is subject to a Class 3 misdemeanor. The bill contains technical amendments.

H.B. 49

Patron: Albo

Penalty for DUI manslaughter.  Provides that the punishment for DUI manslaughter is to include a one-year mandatory term of confinement and raises the mandatory minimum term for aggravated DUI manslaughter from one to five years.

H.B. 750

Patron: Cline

Inherent authority to defer and dismiss a criminal case.  Provides that no court shall have the authority, upon a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or after a plea of not guilty, when the facts found by the court would justify a finding of guilt, to defer proceedings or to defer entry of a final order of guilt or to dismiss the case upon completion of terms and conditions except as provided by statute unless all parties agree otherwise or deferred judgment is provided for by statute. This bill responds to the January 13, 2011, Supreme Court of Virginia decision in Hernandez v. Commonwealth, 281 Va. 222, 707 S.E.2d 273 (2011). This bill incorporates HB 51.

H.B. 897

Patron: Albo

Virginia Child Protection Accountability System.  Requires the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission to report information about sentences imposed in cases involving certain criminal violations and requires the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia to report information from the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts' Case Management System on removal orders, protective orders, and protective orders alleging family abuse to the Virginia Child Protection Accountability System.

H.B. 975

Patron: Bell, Robert B.

Public service corporations and companies; governmental utility corporation.  Clarifies that a government utility corporation (a county or municipality, or entity or agency thereof, that provides or operates specified authorized utility services) shall be considered to be acting as a public service corporation or public service company with regard to the provision of such authorized utility services for the purposes of any taking of private property by eminent domain in accordance with the Constitution of Virginia.