---
type: "Bill"
title: "Jury service; deferral of service if full-time student."
description: "Jury service; deferral of service if full-time student."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 481"
citation: "Virginia HB 481 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Civil Remedies and Procedure", "Education"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Robert B. Bell"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2018-01-08"
last_action: "2018-03-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/5cba02c0-f684-4be6-ac94-1f2cad1961b6"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+sum+HB481"
source_hash: "2eef02658525d2b44539473067c2d521b4936e0b7195f33c743d462038f65e2c"
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 481 (2018) — Jury service; deferral of service if full-time student.

## Version chain

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

1. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB481ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB481ER)
2. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18100562D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?181+ful+HB481)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **18–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **7–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **15–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Robert B. Bell — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-01-08** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/18 18100562D `introduction`
- **2018-01-08** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-16** Assigned Courts sub: Subcommittee #3 `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-07** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2018-02-08** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2018-02-09** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y -0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2018-02-12** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2018-02-12** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-21** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2018-02-26** Enrolled
- **2018-02-26** Signed by Speaker
- **2018-02-28** Signed by President
- **2018-03-02** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 2, 2018
- **2018-03-02** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 9, 2018
- **2018-03-09** Approved by Governor-Chapter 259 (effective 7/1/18) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/5cba02c0-f684-4be6-ac94-1f2cad1961b6`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).