Courts Of Justice

Monday, March 2, 2026·1h 55m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Virginia Courts of Justice Committee advanced dozens of Senate bills, including contested measures on juvenile delinquency age thresholds, reproductive health facility access, plea agreement rights waivers, expungement reforms, and the Virginia Health Care Protection Act — most passing along a 15-7 or 16-6 partisan split — while tabling a title insurance published-rate bill 14-4 after sharp industry and member pushback.

Key Actions

·SB 18 – Juvenile Delinquency Age ThresholdNo Vote

+ 13 more actions

Controversies

SB 622 – Whether a published rate framework protects consumers or suppresses competition

Delegate Simon argued the bill effectively lets insurers tell the SCC what their rates will be and then use state authority to prevent discounting, accusing the two supporting competitors of seeking to avoid competing with each other. Joe Shepard and Katherine Crawford contended the bill is a consumer protection measure that adds transparency, with Shepard citing a residential-to-commercial rate disparity of $3.86 versus $1.06 per thousand dollars of coverage for the period 2019–2025. Delegate Simon challenged that statistic, arguing the graduated pricing structure for title insurance already produces lower per-thousand costs on large commercial transactions.

+ 2 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“Essentially what I'm hearing this bill does and this model that you all have picked says, we want to tell you SEC what our rates are going to be and we want you to tell us we're not allowed to go below them so that we can turn around to our customers and say, hey, listen, we'd love to help you out. We wish we could, but the state won't let us discount the rate. And that seems like a pretty good way to do business.”
Delegate Simon — Delegate Simon was challenging the framing by title insurance industry witnesses that SB 622's published rate framework would protect consumers, arguing instead that it would entrench minimum rates.

+ 2 more quotes

Votes

Report SB 62 with substitutePassed

Report SB 283Passed

Report SB 261 and refer to Appropriations (separately from block)Passed

Report SB 18 as amendedPassed

Report SB 23Passed

Report SB 137 with substitutePassed

Report SB 198 as amended and refer to AppropriationsPassed

Report SB 230 with substitutePassed

Report SB 342 as amendedPassed

Report SB 540 with substitutePassed

Report SB 725 with substitutePassed

Report SB 794 and refer to AppropriationsPassed

Lay SB 622 on the table (with letter from Chair to Bureau of Insurance)Passed

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TranscriptPreview

Justice Committee will now come to order. Members, please register your attendance on the electronic voting device. All right. Clerk will close the roll. Okay. We do have a quorum. There's several administrative announcements that I need to make. Those of you that are here for Senate Bill 536, patron by Senator Obenchain. That bill is going to go by for the day. So if you're here to listen to that, that will go by for the day will not be heard today. Other bills that I need to make an announcement are. All these will be by voice votes. The motion will be to continue until 2027 under Rule 22, I.e. senate Bill 369, Senate Bill 689, Senate Bill 345, and Senate Bill 376. Can I get a motion to continue those four bills? Motion to continue. I've got a motion. Properly. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, those bills are continued. Let me skip over. Senate Bill 622, patron by Senator Marsden. That's the one bill that we want to hear today. Otherwise, I'm going to go ahead and go through the identical bills. This is going to be in an uncontested block. All members…

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