Legislation: batch E — CA TN VA VT WA WI WV WY

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/va/2020/hb-137.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Guardian ad litem for children; certification of compliance with certain standards."
+description: "Guardians ad litem for children; certification of compliance with certain standards. Requires guardians ad litem appointed to represent a child in a matter to conduct an investigation in compliance with certain standards. The bill requires a guardian ad litem to file with the court, along with any attorney representing a party or party proceeding pro se, a certification of the guardian ad litem's compliance with such standards, specifically addressing such standards requiring face-to-face contact with the child. The bill further requires the guardian ad litem to document the hours spent satisfying such face-to-face contact requirements and specifies that compensation for such contact shall be at the same rate as that for in-court service."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
+legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
+session: "2020"
+identifier: "HB 137"
+citation: "Virginia HB 137 (2020)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: []
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Chris Collins-Resigned 6/28/20"]
+version_count: 4
+action_count: 26
+vote_count: 6
+first_action: "2019-12-18"
+last_action: "2020-03-02"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b739fb27-b770-4426-b4ee-7b7d1ad79613"
+source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+HB137"
+source_hash: "3065f40da94cb59282905162a50f6b1db5bcdff139e9fa5264f4717d9851f245"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
+---
+
+# Virginia HB 137 (2020) — Guardian ad litem for children; certification of compliance with certain standards.
+
+Guardians ad litem for children; certification of compliance with certain standards. Requires guardians ad litem appointed to represent a child in a matter to conduct an investigation in compliance with certain standards. The bill requires a guardian ad litem to file with the court, along with any attorney representing a party or party proceeding pro se, a certification of the guardian ad litem's compliance with such standards, specifically addressing such standards requiring face-to-face contact with the child. The bill further requires the guardian ad litem to document the hours spent satisfying such face-to-face contact requirements and specifies that compensation for such contact shall be at the same rate as that for in-court service.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0021)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0021)
+2. **Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB137ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB137ER)
+3. **Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB137H1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB137H1)
+4. **Impact statement from DPB (HB137)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+HB137)
+
+## Votes
+
+- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
+- Reported from Judiciary (14-Y 0-N 1-A) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
+- Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
+- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments (7-Y 0-N) — **7–0** (pass) · lower
+- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
+- VOTE: (97-Y 0-N) — **96–0** (pass) · lower
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Chris Collins-Resigned 6/28/20 — primary (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2019-12-18** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20102539D `introduction`
+- **2019-12-18** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
+- **2020-01-17** Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments (7-Y 0-N)
+- **2020-01-21** Impact statement from DPB (HB137)
+- **2020-01-22** Committee substitute printed 20106038D-H1 `substitution`
+- **2020-01-22** Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
+- **2020-01-24** Read first time `reading-1`
+- **2020-01-27** Read second time `reading-2`
+- **2020-01-27** Committee substitute agreed to 20106038D-H1
+- **2020-01-27** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB137H1
+- **2020-01-28** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
+- **2020-01-28** VOTE: (97-Y 0-N)
+- **2020-01-29** Constitutional reading dispensed
+- **2020-01-29** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
+- **2020-02-03** Impact statement from DPB (HB137H1)
+- **2020-02-12** Reported from Judiciary (14-Y 0-N 1-A) `committee-passage`
+- **2020-02-14** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
+- **2020-02-17** Read third time `reading-3`
+- **2020-02-17** Passed Senate (40-Y 0-N) `passage`
+- **2020-02-19** Enrolled
+- **2020-02-19** Impact statement from DPB (HB137ER)
+- **2020-02-19** Signed by Speaker
+- **2020-02-20** Signed by President
+- **2020-02-24** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 24, 2020
+- **2020-02-24** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 2, 2020
+- **2020-03-02** Approved by Governor-Chapter 21 (effective 7/1/20) `executive-signature`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b739fb27-b770-4426-b4ee-7b7d1ad79613`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).
+