VA HB 604

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Specialty civil court dockets; business and complex litigation dockets established; criteria for eligible actions. Establishes a specialty docket, known as the business and complex litigation docket, to assist circuit courts with certain civil actions that involve specialized legal issues, complex contexts, intricate transactions, multiple parties, or other complicating factors. The bill provides that for an action to be eligible to be considered for a business and complex litigation docket, the action shall (i) present special complexity, including specialized issues or acute litigation management needs, and (ii) fall into one or more of several enumerated categories of civil actions. The bill also requires that such eligible action has a minimum amount in controversy of $100,000. The bill also enumerates several types of civil actions that are ineligible for such specialty docket but creates an exception for any such action that demonstrates extraordinary circumstances that would require specialized docket management. The bill creates a process by which counsel for any party or the circuit court judge initially assigned to an eligible action may request that the matter be transferred to the specialty docket and directs the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia, in collaboration with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Specialty Docket Advisory Committee studying business and complex litigation dockets, to establish any rules or procedures as necessary for the transfer of such eligible actions.

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