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/sb-451.md

@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Juvenile and domestic relations district court; award of attorney fees and costs."
+description: "Juvenile and domestic relations district court;award of attorney fees. Permits a juvenile and domestic relationsdistrict court judge to take all relevant factors, in addition tothe relative financial ability of the parties, into considerationwhen awarding attorney fees and costs."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
+legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
+session: "2020"
+identifier: "SB 451"
+citation: "Virginia SB 451 (2020)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: []
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Scott A. Surovell"]
+version_count: 3
+action_count: 23
+vote_count: 6
+first_action: "2020-01-07"
+last_action: "2020-03-06"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/412d5dd1-779f-463b-bcd8-a7ee5d6d9d10"
+source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB451"
+source_hash: "3f1a00fe35527e6a388ed706929b04b577c34b871b00150a5dde1a24bc22c1e2"
+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 SB 451 (2020) — Juvenile and domestic relations district court; award of attorney fees and costs.
+
+Juvenile and domestic relations district court;award of attorney fees. Permits a juvenile and domestic relationsdistrict court judge to take all relevant factors, in addition tothe relative financial ability of the parties, into considerationwhen awarding attorney fees and costs.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0185)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0185)
+2. **Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB451ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB451)
+3. **Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB451ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+SB451ER)
+
+## Votes
+
+- Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
+- Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
+- VOTE: (100-Y 0-N) — **99–0** (pass) · lower
+- Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
+- Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 0-N) — **7–0** (pass) · lower
+- Reported from Judiciary (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Scott A. Surovell — primary (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2020-01-07** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20102609D `introduction`
+- **2020-01-07** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
+- **2020-01-08** Moved from Courts of Justice to Judiciary due to a change of the committee name
+- **2020-01-27** Reported from Judiciary (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
+- **2020-01-28** Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N)
+- **2020-01-29** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
+- **2020-01-30** Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
+- **2020-02-03** Placed on Calendar
+- **2020-02-03** Read first time `reading-1`
+- **2020-02-03** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
+- **2020-02-11** Assigned Courts sub: Civil `referral-committee`
+- **2020-02-12** Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 0-N)
+- **2020-02-14** Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
+- **2020-02-18** Read second time `reading-2`
+- **2020-02-19** Read third time `reading-3`
+- **2020-02-19** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (100-Y 0-N) `passage`
+- **2020-02-19** VOTE: (100-Y 0-N)
+- **2020-02-24** Enrolled
+- **2020-02-24** Signed by Speaker
+- **2020-02-25** Signed by President
+- **2020-02-28** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on February 28, 2020
+- **2020-02-28** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 6, 2020
+- **2020-03-06** Approved by Governor-Chapter 185 (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/412d5dd1-779f-463b-bcd8-a7ee5d6d9d10`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).
+