HB 240 Virginia House of Delegates · 2026 Regular Session

Admission to bail; fixing terms of bail, mental health considerations.

Summary
Admission to bail; fixing terms of bail; mental health considerations. Requires the judicial officer, prior to conducting any hearing on the issue of bail, release, or detention, to obtain the person's criminal history and any emergency custody or temporary detention order or involuntary admission issued for such person. The bill also requires the judicial officer to consider any emergency custody or temporary detention order or involuntary admission issued for the person when determining admission to bail. Lastly, the bill requires the judicial officer to take into account the following factors in fixing the terms of bail if such person is admitted to bail: (i) whether the person is likely to obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice, or threaten, injure, or intimidate, or attempt to threaten, injure, or intimidate a family or household member as defined in relevant law; (ii) the history of the accused or juvenile, including medical, mental health, including any emergency custody or temporary detention order or involuntary admission issued pursuant to relevant law, or substance abuse treatment; (iii) any evidence the person provided indicating that such person (a) is currently pregnant, (b) has recently given birth, or (c) is currently nursing a child; and (iv) whether such person will be an unreasonable danger to himself, family or household members as defined in relevant law, or the public.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 8, 2026 Last action Feb 11, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Courts of Justice Substitute · 3 edits
MINOR
This bill moved from its initial introduction to a substitute version prepared by the House Committee for Courts of Justice. The substantive policy content regarding bail procedures remains largely the same, but the text was reformatted and reorganized into a proper legislative substitute document format. The bill addresses bail considerations including mental health factors and criminal history review requirements.
TECHNICAL

The bill was converted from an introduced version to a substitute amendment format, which is a procedural change rather than a substantive policy change. The text now includes proper substitute bill formatting with committee attribution and page numbering.

The bill text was reformatted with proper line breaks, spacing, and page numbering consistent with legislative substitute documents, making it ready for committee consideration.

REQUIREMENT

Added specific language requiring law enforcement officers who know about emergency custody or involuntary admission orders to provide that information to judicial officers, strengthening the mental health consideration requirement.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
7
Key actions
2
Committee
4
Feb 6, 2026
Lower · Passed
Subcommittee recommends continuing to (Voice Vote)
lower
Feb 2, 2026
Lower · Passed
House subcommittee offered
lower
Jan 30, 2026
Committee
Assigned HCJ sub: Criminal
lower
Jan 8, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
lower
1 primary · 5 co-sponsors

Sponsors