republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2020/sb-401.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	Immunity of persons at public hearing; attorney fees and costs.	Immunity of persons at public hearing; attorneyfees; costs. Allows for the award of reasonable attorney feesand costs to any person who has a subpoena against him quashed inan action for statements made at a public hearing before the governingbody of a locality or other local entity when he is immune from liabilityfor such statements. Current law provides for the award of attorneyfees and costs upon the dismissal of such an action.	us/states/va	Virginia General Assembly	2020	SB 401	Virginia SB 401 (2020)	bill		enacted	Ghazala F. Hashmi	3	24	6	2020-01-07	2020-04-07	openstates	ocd-bill/6ceb2b27-a9a7-4ed4-8905-b93f770d205a	https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB401	f565cbc325cd7974e47888ef363f912dbc910c9f913ccd0c705e4cdd7e3d0b59	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-va

Virginia SB 401 (2020) — Immunity of persons at public hearing; attorney fees and costs.

Immunity of persons at public hearing; attorneyfees; costs. Allows for the award of reasonable attorney feesand costs to any person who has a subpoena against him quashed inan action for statements made at a public hearing before the governingbody of a locality or other local entity when he is immune from liabilityfor such statements. Current law provides for the award of attorneyfees and costs upon the dismissal of such an action.

Version chain

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

1. Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0824) (committee substitute) — source
2. Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB401ER) (committee substitute) — source
3. Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB401ER) (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• VOTE: Passage (98-Y 0-N) — 97–0 (pass) · lower
• Reported from Judiciary (14-Y 1-N) — 14–1 (pass) · upper
• Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 0-N) — 7–0 (pass) · lower
• Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N) — 37–0 (pass) · upper
• Reported from Courts of Justice (19-Y 2-N) — 19–2 (pass) · lower
• Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 1-N) — 39–1 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Ghazala F. Hashmi — primary (person)
• Adam P. Ebbin — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

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

• 2020-01-07 Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/08/20 20100737D 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
• 2020-01-24 Assigned Judiciary sub: Civil Law referral-committee
• 2020-02-05 Reported from Judiciary (14-Y 1-N) committee-passage
• 2020-02-07 Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N)
• 2020-02-10 Read second time and engrossed reading-2
• 2020-02-11 Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 1-N) passage, reading-3
• 2020-02-14 Placed on Calendar
• 2020-02-14 Read first time reading-1
• 2020-02-14 Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice referral-committee
• 2020-02-21 Assigned Courts sub: Civil referral-committee
• 2020-02-24 Subcommittee recommends reporting (7-Y 0-N)
• 2020-02-28 Reported from Courts of Justice (19-Y 2-N) committee-passage
• 2020-03-03 Read second time reading-2
• 2020-03-04 Read third time reading-3
• 2020-03-04 Passed House (98-Y 0-N) passage
• 2020-03-04 VOTE: Passage (98-Y 0-N)
• 2020-03-07 Enrolled
• 2020-03-07 Signed by President
• 2020-03-08 Signed by Speaker
• 2020-03-12 Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 12, 2020
• 2020-03-12 Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 11, 2020
• 2020-04-07 Approved by Governor-Chapter 824 (effective 7/1/20) executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/6ceb2b27-a9a7-4ed4-8905-b93f770d205a. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).