---
type: "Bill"
title: "Summary judgment; limited use of discovery depositions and affidavits."
description: "Allows for the limited use of discovery depositions and affidavits in support of or in opposition to a motion for summary judgment, provided that the only parties to the action are business entities and the amount at issue is $50,000 or more. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2197"
citation: "Virginia HB 2197 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Civil Remedies and Procedure"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["C. Todd Gilbert"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2019-01-08"
last_action: "2019-02-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ae3fe9b3-7df2-439c-a51a-57a8649bc769"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2197"
source_hash: "c6b06d4baaf71a392ce29c4de556a34436167403b28d84f347203d07a068d24d"
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 2197 (2019) — Summary judgment; limited use of discovery depositions and affidavits.

Allows for the limited use of discovery depositions and affidavits in support of or in opposition to a motion for summary judgment, provided that the only parties to the action are business entities and the amount at issue is $50,000 or more. 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 (CHAP0010)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0010)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2197ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2197ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19103756D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2197)

## Votes

- Reported from Courts of Justice — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate — **25–15** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **7–6** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- C. Todd Gilbert — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-08** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19103756D `introduction`
- **2019-01-08** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-14** Assigned Courts sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-23** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-01-24** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2019-01-25** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-01-28** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-01-28** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-04** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-05** Enrolled
- **2019-02-05** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-05** Signed by President
- **2019-02-06** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 6, 2019
- **2019-02-06** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 13, 2019
- **2019-02-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 10 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ae3fe9b3-7df2-439c-a51a-57a8649bc769`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).