republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2026/hb-303.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Divorce; adultery, filing, parties living separate and apart, report."
description: "Divorce; adultery; filing; parties living separate and apart; work group; report. Specifies that a divorce may be decreed on the grounds of adultery, provided that such adultery occurred prior to the final separation of the parties. The bill further allows for a divorce from bed and board to be decreed on the application of either party upon the parties living separate and apart; under current law, a divorce from bed and board may only be decreed for cruelty, reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, willful desertion, or abandonment. The bill specifies that no waiting period is required for the filing for such a divorce, but the decree of such a divorce may only be decreed pursuant to certain requirements otherwise specified in the law. The bill further directs the Virginia Family Law Coalition, in conjunction with the Virginia State Bar Family Law Section, to convene a work group to consider whether to eliminate fault-based grounds for divorce in the Commonwealth and to submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the Governor and to the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice no later than December 1, 2026."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 303"
citation: "Virginia HB 303 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Richard C. \"Rip\" Sullivan, Jr."]
version_count: 4
action_count: 27
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2026-01-09"
last_action: "2026-04-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ea6e9403-ca35-42f5-ab1c-7062aa901d09"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB303"
source_hash: "949f6b3c5068b0b5fdca0dc8dab4c30031a79292a79984fa5003dc01c24c3fba"
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 303 (2026) — Divorce; adultery, filing, parties living separate and apart, report.

Divorce; adultery; filing; parties living separate and apart; work group; report. Specifies that a divorce may be decreed on the grounds of adultery, provided that such adultery occurred prior to the final separation of the parties. The bill further allows for a divorce from bed and board to be decreed on the application of either party upon the parties living separate and apart; under current law, a divorce from bed and board may only be decreed for cruelty, reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, willful desertion, or abandonment. The bill specifies that no waiting period is required for the filing for such a divorce, but the decree of such a divorce may only be decreed pursuant to certain requirements otherwise specified in the law. The bill further directs the Virginia Family Law Coalition, in conjunction with the Virginia State Bar Family Law Section, to convene a work group to consider whether to eliminate fault-based grounds for divorce in the Commonwealth and to submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the Governor and to the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice no later than December 1, 2026.

## Version chain

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

1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1083764.PDF)
2. **Courts of Justice Amendment** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1199546.HTML)
3. **Senate Amendments** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1204077.HTML)
4. **Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1212179.PDF)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed (on 2nd reading) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Passage R — **24–16** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice — **16–6** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **6–2** (pass) · lower
- H VOTE: — **67–31** (pass) · lower
- H VOTE: — **64–34** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice with amendments — **12–1** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr. — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-01-09** Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26101259D `filing, introduction`
- **2026-01-09** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-26** Assigned HCJ sub: Civil `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-28** Subcommittee recommends reporting (6-Y 2-N)
- **2026-02-04** Reported from Courts of Justice (16-Y 6-N) `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-06** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2026-02-09** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2026-02-10** Read third time and passed House (67-Y 31-N 0-A) `passage, reading-3`
- **2026-02-11** Constitutional reading dispensed (on 1st reading)
- **2026-02-11** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2026-03-05** Senate committee offered
- **2026-03-05** Reported from Courts of Justice with amendments (12-Y 1-N 1-A) `committee-passage`
- **2026-03-09** Rules suspended
- **2026-03-09** Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 2nd reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
- **2026-03-09** Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
- **2026-03-10** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2026-03-10** Courts of Justice Amendments agreed to `amendment-passage`
- **2026-03-10** Engrossed by Senate as amended
- **2026-03-10** Passed Senate with amendments (24-Y 16-N 0-A) `passage`
- **2026-03-11** Senate amendments agreed to by House (64-Y 34-N 0-A) `amendment-passage`
- **2026-03-30** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2026-03-30** Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB303ER) `passage`
- **2026-03-30** Signed by President `passage`
- **2026-03-31** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2026-03-31** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 31, 2026 `enrolled, executive-receipt`
- **2026-03-31** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026 `executive-receipt`
- **2026-04-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 918 (effective 7/1/2026) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ea6e9403-ca35-42f5-ab1c-7062aa901d09`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).