---
type: "Bill"
title: "Persons allowed services without fees or costs; inability to pay on account of poverty, guidelines."
description: "Requires the court to use the guidelines for determining indigency for the appointment of counsel in determining a person's inability to pay fees or costs on account of poverty in a civil action. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 2328"
citation: "Virginia HB 2328 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Courts of Record", "Criminal Procedure"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Christopher E. Collins"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 18
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-13"
last_action: "2017-02-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2dbcac4a-b01e-44e0-8688-d5c8e0bec918"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB2328"
source_hash: "a6d88cc6d5a0ba7bd3773973f42bcae316806d3359e67da9548299343aab88a8"
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 2328 (2017) — Persons allowed services without fees or costs; inability to pay on account of poverty, guidelines.

Requires the court to use the guidelines for determining indigency for the appointment of counsel in determining a person's inability to pay fees or costs on account of poverty in a civil action. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0227)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0227)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2328ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2328ER)
3. **House: Presented and ordered printed 17101994D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2328)
4. **House: Printed as engrossed 17101994D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2328E)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **95–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **12–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendment — **9–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice with amendment — **21–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Christopher E. Collins — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-13** Presented and ordered printed 17101994D `introduction`
- **2017-01-13** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-16** Assigned Courts sub: Civil Law `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-31** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-01** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-01** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2017-02-01** Engrossed by House as amended HB2328E
- **2017-02-01** Printed as engrossed 17101994D-E
- **2017-02-02** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (95-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-02-03** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-02-03** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-13** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-15** Enrolled
- **2017-02-15** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-17** Signed by President
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/17/17
- **2017-02-17** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 24, 2017
- **2017-02-23** Approved by Governor-Chapter 227 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2dbcac4a-b01e-44e0-8688-d5c8e0bec918`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).