---
type: "Bill"
title: "Judge; Second Judicial Circuit, resident judge in Counties of Accomack and Northampton."
description: "Judge; Second Judicial Circuit; resident judge in Counties of Accomack and Northampton. Requires that one judge from the Second Judicial Circuit be a resident and domiciliary of the County of Accomack or Northampton and preside regularly in the Counties of Accomack and Northampton."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2022"
identifier: "SB 497"
citation: "Virginia SB 497 (2022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Lynwood W. Lewis, Jr."]
version_count: 4
action_count: 30
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2022-01-12"
last_action: "2022-04-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/249d08f1-73af-409d-86bc-e894f7effb59"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+sum+SB497"
source_hash: "7f98c520e2aaca8595f2761a0de5c8facd08a197b93bcbfa63bb931404e756ed"
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 497 (2022) — Judge; Second Judicial Circuit, resident judge in Counties of Accomack and Northampton.

Judge; Second Judicial Circuit; resident judge in Counties of Accomack and Northampton. Requires that one judge from the Second Judicial Circuit be a resident and domiciliary of the County of Accomack or Northampton and preside regularly in the Counties of Accomack and Northampton.

## Version chain

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

1. **CHAP0596** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+CHAP0596)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22101825D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB497)
3. **Printed as engrossed 22101825D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB497E)
4. **SB497ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?221+ful+SB497ER)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Judiciary with amendments (15-Y 0-N) — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (98-Y 0-N) — **97–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice (20-Y 0-N) — **20–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Lynwood W. Lewis, Jr. — primary (person)
- Robert S. Bloxom, Jr. — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2022-01-12** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/12/22 22101825D `introduction`
- **2022-01-12** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2022-01-24** Reported from Judiciary with amendments (15-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-01-24** Impact statement from DPB (SB497)
- **2022-01-25** Passed by for the day
- **2022-01-26** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2022-01-27** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2022-01-27** Reading of amendments waived
- **2022-01-27** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2022-01-27** Engrossed by Senate as amended SB497E
- **2022-01-27** Printed as engrossed 22101825D-E
- **2022-01-27** Impact statement from DPB (SB497E)
- **2022-01-28** Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2022-02-22** Placed on Calendar
- **2022-02-22** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2022-02-22** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-22** Assigned Courts sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2022-02-28** Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N)
- **2022-03-02** Reported from Courts of Justice (20-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2022-03-04** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2022-03-07** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2022-03-07** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (98-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2022-03-07** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (98-Y 0-N)
- **2022-03-10** Enrolled
- **2022-03-10** Signed by President
- **2022-03-10** Signed by Speaker
- **2022-03-22** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 22, 2022
- **2022-03-22** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2022
- **2022-04-01** Impact statement from DPB (SB497ER)
- **2022-04-11** Approved by Governor-Chapter 596 (effective 7/1/22) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/249d08f1-73af-409d-86bc-e894f7effb59`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).