The Civil Subcommittee advanced a package of tenant-protection and consumer-debt bills, including a unanimous landlord ledger transparency bill and a contested 10-year judgment limitation bill, while carrying over two mechanics lien bills and deferring others pending unresolved amendments. The most contentious item — the Uniform Consumer Debt Default Judgments Act (HB 444) — cleared subcommittee 7-1 only after the patron agreed to delay enactment to July 1, 2027 and refer the bill for study by the Boyd Graves Conference and Committee on District Courts.
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Reese Wilkes of the Virginia Creditors Bar Association argued no state has enacted the uniform act and that four states with pending bills have paused to ensure the act fits their procedures, warning general district court — a court not of record — is ill-suited to the new requirements. Jason S. Ballard agreed the bill was 'a little premature' with no implemented examples to learn from. Joanna Darkus countered that the act was vetted over three years nationally with Virginia-specific stakeholder input in 2023, and that Virginia's judges 'can do the job.' Marcus B. Simon resolved the immediate impasse by proposing delayed enactment to July 1, 2027 with a study referral to Boyd Graves and the Committee on District Courts.
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“Which one are we starting with, Mr. Chair? All the pages for the other substitute. Okay. You said this is awfully thin. And I actually started to try and read it here. And I was sitting Here reading it, I thought. I thought it was very pithy. 1426. All right. Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee House Bill 1426 has to do with the statute of limitations on general district court judgments. You'll see the highlighted language on line 54. So current law, you get a general district court judgment, it's got an automatic statute of limitations for 10 years simply by virtue of documenting that judgment, the circuit court land records where everybody can see”
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Sign in to subscribeGood afternoon. I'm calling this Wednesday, February 4th meeting the courts of Justice Civil Law subcommittee to order. Members will indicate their presence on the electronic voting board. And although it doesn't say so, I observe that a quorum is present so we can go ahead and begin. We have a quorum. All right. We're while they're getting maybe the bugs worked out, we have some voice votes that we can do that will help dispose of some of the docket. And so if you're online watching or if you're here in the room for these bills, listen up. House Bill 42, which is my bill, and House Bill 752 from Delegate Rungyon, both have to do with mechanics liens. Despite our very diligent work to come to sort of sort of consensus on these issues, there's still outstanding issues that we don't think will be able to resolve before crossover. So both Delegate Rungian and I have agreed that these bills should carry over to the 2027 session pursuant to Rule 22, so we can get together and work on these further over in the off season. So that's a voice. That's a I need a motion as we…
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