republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2026/hb-933.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Penalties for failure to appear; definition, contempt."
description: "Penalties for failure to appear; contempt. Provides that a court shall consider certain mitigating factors to determine whether the failure of any person to appear before any court or judicial officer as required was willful. Under current law, no mitigating factors are specified for a court or judicial officer to consider in determining whether a person willfully failed to appear. This bill is identical to SB 283."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 933"
citation: "Virginia HB 933 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Marcus B. Simon"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 33
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2026-01-13"
last_action: "2026-04-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/71463e85-d0ea-492e-bc97-2527c118b789"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB933"
source_hash: "d5badc8a33269696ea6396f251c41fd39e0b0a2b8baa4363dea5da0eaae754c9"
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 933 (2026) — Penalties for failure to appear; definition, contempt.

Penalties for failure to appear; contempt. Provides that a court shall consider certain mitigating factors to determine whether the failure of any person to appear before any court or judicial officer as required was willful. Under current law, no mitigating factors are specified for a court or judicial officer to consider in determining whether a person willfully failed to appear. This bill is identical to SB 283.

## 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/1086576.PDF)
2. **Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1216989.PDF)
3. **Courts of Justice Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1171122.PDF)
4. **Criminal Subcommittee Substitute** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1101256.PDF)
5. **Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1181544.PDF)

## Votes

- H VOTE: — **64–32** (pass) · lower
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **7–2** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (on 2nd reading) — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- H VOTE: — **62–35** (pass) · lower
- Passage R — **20–18** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute — **9–5** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute — **15–7** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Marcus B. Simon — primary (person)
- Rae Cousins — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-01-13** Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26101390D `filing, introduction`
- **2026-01-13** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-23** Assigned HCJ sub: Criminal `referral-committee`
- **2026-01-28** House subcommittee offered
- **2026-01-28** Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (7-Y 2-N) `substitution`
- **2026-02-04** Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (15-Y 7-N) `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-04** Committee substitute printed 26106485D-H1 `substitution`
- **2026-02-06** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2026-02-09** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2026-02-09** committee substitute agreed to `substitution`
- **2026-02-09** Engrossed by House - committee substitute `substitution`
- **2026-02-10** Read third time and passed House (62-Y 35-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`
- **2026-02-18** Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (9-Y 5-N) `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-19** Committee substitute printed 26108204D-S1 `substitution`
- **2026-02-20** Rules suspended
- **2026-02-20** Constitutional reading dispensed Block Vote (on 2nd reading) (40-Y 0-N 0-A)
- **2026-02-20** Passed by for the day Block Vote (Voice Vote)
- **2026-02-23** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2026-02-23** Courts of Justice Substitute agreed to
- **2026-02-23** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute `substitution`
- **2026-02-23** Passed Senate with substitute (20-Y 18-N 0-A) `passage`
- **2026-02-25** Senate substitute agreed to by House (64-Y 32-N 0-A) `substitution`
- **2026-03-02** Enrolled `enrolled`
- **2026-03-02** Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB933ER) `passage`
- **2026-03-02** Signed by Speaker `passage`
- **2026-03-02** Signed by President `passage`
- **2026-03-10** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 10, 2026 `enrolled, executive-receipt`
- **2026-03-10** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., April 13, 2026 `executive-receipt`
- **2026-03-11** Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB933)
- **2026-04-06** Approved by Governor-Chapter 241 (effective 7/1/2026) `executive-signature`
- **2026-04-06** Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0241)

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/71463e85-d0ea-492e-bc97-2527c118b789`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).