The MAJDC Law Blog

As of March 7th, Governor Kaine signed and approved the Children’s Ombudsman Bill (HB 1131).  No funding has been allocated as of yet.

The Newport News (VA) Daily Press ran a story yesterday about the passage of HB93:

“It could be a really good thing for the public defender system,” said David Johnson, executive director of the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, the state agency that oversees public defenders. “We’re certainly optimistic that the governor will sign it. He’s been very supportive of our system in the past.”

Under the current state pay scale, the top attorney in each public defender office — the “public defender” — makes $99,892. Other staffers make between $48,183 for an entry-level assistant public defender to $72,862 for the public defender’s top deputy.

HB 1207, which will allow juveniles serving blended sentences to earn sentence credit for good time served in juvenile facilities, as described here, has passed both chambers of the General Assembly without amendment.

On Wednesday, HB 830 successfully passed the Senate.  As previously noted, HB 830 allows an accused to call the custodian of the record for offenses that involve providing false information to the Sex Offender Registry.

HB 1426, which would allow for the recording of proceedings in Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court, was referred to the Senate Committee of Courts of Justice after passing the House.  It was continued until 2009 by a unanimous vote of Courts of Justice.

This Bill was left in committee on 02/12/08.

The Sub-committee that this Bill was assigned to never took ant action on this Bill was left in Committee on 02/12/08.

As of 02-12-2008 this bill was left in Appropriations.

HB 590 (adding larceny of a motor vehicle to the list of predicate criminal acts) and HB 1182 (adding grand larceny to the list of predicate criminal acts) have been effectively killed after being left in Appropriations.

HB 552, which would have amended the process for removing information from the Sex Offender Registry, was left in the House Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee, effectively killing the bill.