---
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: "SB 1305"
citation: "Virginia SB 1305 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Courts of Record", "Criminal Procedure"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Jill Holtzman Vogel"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 19
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2017-01-10"
last_action: "2017-02-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3b2b97d2-d81f-4f4f-850b-dc52d71cf1da"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1305"
source_hash: "f1b89eb7b46c60195826a020a1e438ad60586fdfcef3aa7ca45ab7ce91954f6f"
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 1305 (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 (CHAP0226)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0226)
2. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB1305ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1305ER)
3. **Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103129D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1305)
4. **Senate: Printed as engrossed 17103129D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1305E)

## Votes

- Reported from Courts of Justice — **21–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice with amendment — **15–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Jill Holtzman Vogel — primary (person)
- A. Benton "Ben" Chafin — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-01-10** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103129D `introduction`
- **2017-01-10** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-01** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-01** Reading of amendment waived
- **2017-02-01** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2017-02-01** Engrossed by Senate as amended SB1305E
- **2017-02-01** Printed as engrossed 17103129D-E
- **2017-02-06** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-06** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-06** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-10** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-13** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-13** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **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 226 (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/3b2b97d2-d81f-4f4f-850b-dc52d71cf1da`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).