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Courts Of Justice

Wednesday, February 18, 2026·32m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Virginia Courts of Justice Committee advanced 18 Senate bills, most without debate, while Senate Bill 229 on class actions in Virginia drew the hearing's only substantive floor remarks — a committee member voiced multiple legal objections before voting for the bill anyway, which passed 13 to 6.

Key Actions

·SB 82 – Identical companion to House Bill 520Passed

+ 17 more actions

Controversies

SB 229 – Readiness of Virginia class action legislation

Richard C. 'Rip' Sullivan, Jr. argued on the record that the bill is 'not quite ready yet,' citing the absence of a summary judgment mechanism, concerns about per violation language, changes to the reliance element of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act, and language not present in Federal Civil Procedure Rule 23. No named speaker directly rebutted his concerns. Sullivan ultimately voted for the bill, stating he knew where it was going and hoped stakeholders would keep talking about improving it.

Notable Quotes

“It is time for us to get class actions here in Virginia.”

Richard C. 'Rip' Sullivan, Jr. — Sullivan made this statement while explaining his overall position on Senate Bill 229, which would establish class action procedures in Virginia, before going on to detail his specific reservations about the bill's current language.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

Report SB 82, SB 144, SB 206, and SB 216 (block vote)Passed
Report Senate Bill 77Passed
Report Senate Bill 146Passed
Report Senate Bill 229Passed
Report Senate Bill 301Passed
Adopt amendment to SB 37 to conform to House Bill 1020Passed
Report Senate Bill 37 as amendedPassed
Adopt substitute for SB 316 to conform to Simon's billPassed
Report Senate Bill 316 with substitutePassed
Adopt substitute for SB 480 to conform to House Bill 1084Passed
Report Senate Bill 480 with substitutePassed
Adopt substitute for SB 70 to conform to Delegate Levir Boling's bill 483Passed
Report Senate Bill 70 with substitutePassed
Adopt substitute for SB 136 to conform to House Bill 149Passed
Report Senate Bill 136 with substitutePassed
Report Senate Bill 335Passed
Adopt substitute for SB 360 to conform to House Bill 16Passed
Report Senate Bill 360 with substitutePassed
Adopt technical amendment to SB 416 (add word 'district' on line 31)Passed
Report Senate Bill 416 as amendedPassed
Adopt amendment to SB 495 to conform to Sullivan's House billPassed
Report Senate Bill 495 as amendedPassed
Report Senate Bill 597Passed
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TranscriptPreview
Courts of justice will now come to order. Ask the clerk to open the roll for attendance. And members, please register your attendance by voting Aye. All right. All members have voted their attendance. Clerk will please close the roll. We have a quorum. We got today cognates and similar bills, and we got some instructions whether we're going to conform or not. What we'll do is we'll go through these relatively quickly. The Senate bills with identical House Companions. You should all have sort of a read along sheet here and I'll sort of walk through it. We can do the ones that are identical in House Companions that uncontested. We'll do those in a block. I'll read those. Senate Bill 82, patron is delegate or Senator Saleem. That's identical to House Bill 520, Senate Bill 144, Patron McDougall. This is identical to House Bill 124, Patron Rezor. Senate Bill 206, Suter Line. Senator Suer line. Bill's identical to House Bill 73, Delegate Cole. And Senate Bill 216, Patron Senator Boisko. This is identical to House Bill 1119, Patron, Delegate Navarre. We're going to vote those in a block unless anyone wants to pull any of those bills out…
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