republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/hb-1659.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Workers' compensation; employer's lien, third party actions."
description: "Requires that any arbitration proceeding regarding the exercise of an employer's right of subrogation to an employee's claim against a third party shall be limited solely to arbitrating the amount and validity of the employer's lien and shall not affect the employee's rights in any way. Such arbitration shall not be held unless (i) any contested expenses remaining have been submitted to the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission (the Commission) for a determination of their validity and the Commission has made such determination of validity prior to the commencement of the arbitration; (ii) prior to the commencement of such arbitration the employer has provided the injured employee and his attorney, if any, with an itemization of the expenses associated with the lien that is the subject of the arbitration; (iii) upon receipt of the itemization of the lien, the employee shall have 21 days to provide a written objection to any expenses included in the lien to the employer, and if the employee does not do so any objections to the lien to be arbitrated shall be deemed waived; and (iv) the employer shall have 14 days after receipt of the written objection to notify the employee of any contested expenses that the employer does not agree to remove from the lien, and if the employer does not do so any itemized expense objected to by the employee shall be deemed withdrawn and not included in the arbitration. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 1659"
citation: "Virginia HB 1659 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Commissions", "Boards and Institutions Generally", "Workers' Compensation"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Gregory D. Habeeb"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 16
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2017-01-05"
last_action: "2017-03-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e16db668-7b04-4882-92be-565488309e5c"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB1659"
source_hash: "60973d2a1dbd8ab512a25070b9a3db19d6339db191c43e8bbe4e9bf4d64caf9e"
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 1659 (2017) — Workers' compensation; employer's lien, third party actions.

Requires that any arbitration proceeding regarding the exercise of an employer's right of subrogation to an employee's claim against a third party shall be limited solely to arbitrating the amount and validity of the employer's lien and shall not affect the employee's rights in any way. Such arbitration shall not be held unless (i) any contested expenses remaining have been submitted to the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission (the Commission) for a determination of their validity and the Commission has made such determination of validity prior to the commencement of the arbitration; (ii) prior to the commencement of such arbitration the employer has provided the injured employee and his attorney, if any, with an itemization of the expenses associated with the lien that is the subject of the arbitration; (iii) upon receipt of the itemization of the lien, the employee shall have 21 days to provide a written objection to any expenses included in the lien to the employer, and if the employee does not do so any objections to the lien to be arbitrated shall be deemed waived; and (iv) the employer shall have 14 days after receipt of the written objection to notify the employee of any contested expenses that the employer does not agree to remove from the lien, and if the employer does not do so any itemized expense objected to by the employee shall be deemed withdrawn and not included in the arbitration. 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 (CHAP0288)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0288)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1659ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1659ER)
3. **House: Committee substitute printed 17104456D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1659H1)
4. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100980D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB1659)

## Votes

- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **98–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Commerce and Labor — **11–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Commerce and Labor with substitute — **21–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reconsideration of Senate passage agreed to by Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Gregory D. Habeeb — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-01-05** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100980D `introduction`
- **2017-01-05** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-26** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-27** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-01-27** Committee substitute agreed to 17104456D-H1
- **2017-01-27** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB1659H1
- **2017-01-30** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (98-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-01-31** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-01-31** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-16** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-20** Enrolled
- **2017-02-20** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-21** Signed by President
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/21/17
- **2017-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-03** Approved by Governor-Chapter 288 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e16db668-7b04-4882-92be-565488309e5c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).