The 2012 Virginia General Assembly
| 2012 General Assembly Session: The 2012 Regular Session of the Virginia General Assembly will convene on Jan. 11 at noon and run through March 10. Other Important Dates:
2012 SESSION Bills and Resolutions House Bill Index Senate Bill Index General Assembly Members House and Senate Committees Meetings Statistics
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Virginia Lawyers Weekly will bring you the latest news you need from the 2012 General Assembly session. Bookmark this page as your go-to reference guide for the issues impacting law practice and up-to-the-minute news. FEATURED STORY: Anti-‘Hernandez’ bill advances
House Bill 750, sponsored by Del. Ben Cline, R-Amherst, would bar deferred disposition in any case where the facts would justify a finding of guilt unless the prosecutor agrees. Cline explained the bill was helped by state budget experts who said the measure could save the state $6 million a year court services to monitor the defendants. Budget officials reported at least 1,337 defendants had their cases deferred in the last fiscal year, Cline said. A substitute version of Cline’s original bill includes the exception for cases where the prosecutor, defendant and judge all agree on deferred disposition. A measure that would have set a 60-day deadline for judges to rule on guilt in all cases was eliminated. . Evidence rules pass Senate, stall in House Legislation to adopt Rules of Evidence for Virginia passed the full Senate yesterday, but stalled in a House subcommittee, whose members retooled the measure to firm up legislative control of the process for changing the rules over time. The Virginia Senate passed Senate Bill 94 on a 37-3 vote. As introduced by Del. Manoli Loupassi, R-Richmond, a companion bill, House Bill 101, called for the Rules of Evidence approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia to take effect July 1, 2012, if enacted this year by the General Assembly. The subcommittee amended the bill to provide for an automatic delay between a Supreme Court rule change and its effective date. Going forward, changes in the Rules of Evidence adopted by the Supreme Court by Dec. 15 of any year would take effect the following July 1, unless the General Assembly modified or annulled any rule amendment by enactment of a general law. |
The House Courts of Justice committee on Friday voted 11-to-4 to report legislation designed to eliminate judges’ discretion to delay findings of guilt in many criminal cases.