Legislature approves expansion of Court of Appeals, lower courts

Several Virginia courts, including the Court of Appeals of Virginia, are set to expand under legislation signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger following this year’s General Assembly session.

House Bill 443 was signed by Spanberger in April following passages via block vote in both the House of Delegates and the Senate.

The bill amends the size of several court benches across Virginia, including expanding the Court of Appeals from 17 to 21 judges. The expansion marks the second time this decade the appeals court has expanded, with the court growing from 11 to 17 judges in 2021 after an expansion of the court’s jurisdiction gave litigants a right to appeal final civil judgments to the court.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, sponsored a similar bill in the Senate. Surovell’s bill, Senate Bill 793, was continued by the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee before reaching the full chamber.

Surovell told legislators at that time that the request for the Court of Appeals expansion was sparked by increased hearing times and workloads for the existing judges.

“We asked [the court,] ‘If you want to get cases at the 90th percentile done within one year, how many judges do you need?’” Surovell said. “The tool that the sentencing commission put together came back and said they need 21 judges in order to do that.”

Del. Patrick A. Hope, D-Arlington, sponsored HB 443. Hope could not be immediately reached for comment.

In addition to the appeals court expansion, HB 443 expands the 12th and 26th Judicial District General District Court benches by one judge each. Each of those courts will now have six judges under the updated statute.

The 20th and 27th Circuit Courts will also expand by one judge. The 20th Circuit, which covers Fauquier, Loudoun and Rappahannock counties, will grow to six judges, while the 27th Circuit, which oversees Bland, Carroll, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Wythe counties as well as Radford and Galax, will grow to seven judges.

The Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courts for the 12th and 15th Judicial Districts will also expand by one judge. The 12th District bench will grow to seven judges, while the 15th District bench — already Virginia’s largest — will expand to 10 judges.

The bill’s provisions related to the Court of Appeals will become effective on Sept. 1, while some of the lower court expansions will not be effective until July 1, 2027.

The four new Court of Appeals judgeships will cost just over $3.4 million in the first year and approximately $3.1 million in subsequent years, taking into account a judge’s $350,205 compensation package and other associated expenses, according to the Department of Planning and Budget’s fiscal impact statement.

Once all the lower court judgeships are effective, the cost of those judgeships is estimated to be approximately $1.9 million per year in total.

Surovell recently told Virginia Lawyers Weekly that the bill is “hung up in the budget right now,” due to ongoing debate among legislators over the new state budget.

Virginia State Bar Council also confirmed in an update from its most recent meeting that “parts of the bill remain tied to budgetary approval, so the funding piece is still important to watch.”

Under Virginia law, legislators have until June 30 to approve a new budget to avoid a partial state government shutdown, which would be a first in Virginia history.