---
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).