The Civil Law Subcommittee advanced thirteen bills ranging from deed fraud protections and zoning appeal procedures to indigent tenant rights and Virginia State Bar fee reform, with the most contentious debates centering on whether bypassing the Court of Appeals for zoning cases undermines the appellate system, and whether an amended indigency standard for eviction appeal bonds was sufficiently transparent.
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Aaron Corman (Realtors) argued that the proposed civil indigency standard (17.1-606, keyed to legal aid representation) is 'not transparent' and varies by legal aid association, geographic region, case type, and age of the person bringing the case, while Delegate Hope and legal aid witnesses (Christy Marrow/Mayero, Victoria Horak) argued the standard is consistent with other civil processes; Chair Simon sided procedurally with Corman's position and the subcommittee adopted an amendment restoring the 2022 criminal code standard (19.2-159) by voice vote.
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“Our current code contains a specific exclusionary gap. Indigent tenants facing eviction for nonpayment of rent are expressly denied this opportunity to have their appeal bond waived. This effectively bars them from the appellate process simply because of their financial status.”
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Sign in to subscribeOh, wow, that was loud. Good afternoon. Welcome to the first meeting of the 2026 Civil Law Subcommittee of the Courts of Justice Committee. The clerk will open the roll for attendance. Members will indicate their presence on the electronic voting board. We have six. That is just a quorum. So we have a quorum as present clerk. Thank you for that. All right, so we've got a busy afternoon for a lot of folks. I'm not. And we have some people missing here, so I'm not going to do an introductory thing yet. Maybe another meeting we call, introduce ourselves, but welcome to some of the new members of the subcommittee. This is without a doubt, and I say this with all due respect to the criminal law subcommittee chair who's sitting in the audience. The best committee in the House of Delegates. The best subcommittee. It's the most fun, the most substantive and the best educated and best looking. So with that, here we go. All right, I'm going to take up Madam Chair Watts bill first because I know she's got to get over and she has a busy, long, tedious docket that much less exciting and…
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