Bill Commons

VA HB 981

dead

Criminal cases; prosecutorial misconduct, reasonable costs and attorney fees.

Virginia · 2026 Regular Session · lower

Quick answers

Did VA HB 981 pass?

No. VA HB 981 did not pass — it was defeated or died in the legislative process (2026-02-18). Latest recorded action (2026-02-18): Left in Committee Courts of Justice

What is VA HB 981 about?

Criminal cases; prosecutorial misconduct; reasonable costs and attorney fees. Entitles a defendant to recover reasonable costs and attorney fees when a criminal case against him is dismissed and it is discovered that prosecutorial misconduct was present or an abuse of process occurred in such case.

Who sponsors VA HB 981?

Thomas A. Garrett, Jr. is the primary sponsor of VA HB 981.

Description

Criminal cases; prosecutorial misconduct; reasonable costs and attorney fees. Entitles a defendant to recover reasonable costs and attorney fees when a criminal case against him is dismissed and it is discovered that prosecutorial misconduct was present or an abuse of process occurred in such case.

Introduced
2026-01-13
Latest action
2026-02-18 — Left in Committee Courts of Justice
Bill type
bill
Last updated
—

Sponsors

  • Thomas A. Garrett, Jr.primary

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

  1. 2026-01-13

    Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26104239D

    filing,introduction

  2. 2026-01-13

    Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice

    referral-committee

  3. 2026-01-29

    Assigned HCJ sub: Civil

    referral-committee

  4. 2026-02-02

    Subcommittee failed to recommend reporting (4-Y 6-N)

    committee-failure

  5. 2026-02-18

    Left in Committee Courts of Justice

Versions

Documents

Votes

  • Subcommittee recommends reporting

    2026-02-02 · fail · 4-6

    Member-level votes (10)
    • Marcus B. Simon: no
    • Richard C. "Rip" Sullivan, Jr.: no
    • Michelle Lopes Maldonado: no
    • Atoosa R. Reaser: no
    • Karen Keys-Gamarra: no
    • Karen R. "Kacey" Carnegie: no
    • Virgil Thornton: yes
    • Terry G. Kilgore: yes
    • James A. "Jay" Leftwich: yes
    • Jason S. Ballard: yes

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB981

Attribution

Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T05:35:59.552682Z

Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:

Source and document changesStatus and relationship changes

Use this data

Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=VA&identifier=HB 981. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

Known limitations

  • Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
  • Committee referrals are not yet captured.

See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.