Protective orders; prohibited contact; remotecontrol of appliance, utility, or device by electronic device. Clarifiesthat a court entering a protective order may, as a condition of suchprotective order, prohibit the respondent from using any electronicdevice to remotely control any appliance, utility, or device locatedon or within the petitioner's residence or the curtilage thereof.
Sponsored bills
Virginia Minimum Wage Act; exemption. Removesthe exemption from the Virginia Minimum Wage Act for persons employedin domestic service or in or about a private home or in an eleemosynaryinstitution primarily supported by public funds.
Minimum wage; exemptions. Removes the exemptionfrom the Virginia Minimum Wage Act for individuals who are employedby an employer that does not have four or more persons employed atany one time.
Law enforcement; use of force; data collectionand reporting requirement. Requires state and local law-enforcementofficers to collect data on use of force incidents involving law enforcement and forward the data to the Superintendent of StatePolice, which the Department of State Police shall include in theannual Crime in Virginia report. Such incidents include the following:(i) any fatality to a civilian; (ii) any serious bodily injury toa civilian; or (iii) in the absence of either death or serious injury,a discharged firearm by a state or local law-enforcement officerat or in the direction of a person. The bill specifies information required to be included in such incident report.
Expungement of police and court records; nolleprosequi taken or acquittal. Provides that a court that takesa nolle prosequi or enters a judgment acquitting a person of a criminalcharge shall, upon motion of the person, enter an order requiringthe expungement of the police and court records relating to the charge.Currently, such a person may file a separate petition for the expungementof such records; however, except in certain cases involving misdemeanorcharges, the person is not entitled to an order of expungement, andthe court hearing the petition must find that the continued existenceand possible dissemination of such records causes or may cause circumstancesthat constitute a manifest injustice to such person before such anorder will be entered.
Petition for vacatur and expungement of convictionsand police and court records of victims of human trafficking.Allows any person who was a victim of human trafficking at the timeof an offense that led to a criminal charge or conviction of certaincrimes to petition the court to vacate such conviction and expungethe police and court records related to such conviction or to expungethe police and court records related to such charge. The bill provides that there is a rebuttable presumption that a person's participationin an offense was a result of having been a victim of human traffickingif there is official documentation, defined in the bill, of the petitioner'sstatus as a victim of human trafficking at the time of the offense.
General Assembly meetings; streaming and recording. Requires the Clerk of the House of Delegates and the Clerk of theSenate to ensure that every (i) subcommittee or committee meetingof a standing committee of the General Assembly, regardless of meetingdate, and (ii) floor session of the House of Delegates or the Senate,including any joint session of the houses, is streamed with closedcaptioning, recorded and archived. The bill defines "stream" and specifiesthat a qualifying meeting is one the date and time of which havebeen scheduled on a public website of any agency of the General Assemblyfor at least one hour prior to the meeting and that takes place inthe State Capitol, the Pocahontas Building, or the General AssemblyBuilding in Richmond. The bill has a delayed effective date of October1, 2020.
Wage or salary history inquiries prohibited; civil penalty. Prohibits a prospective employer with 25 employees or more from (i) requiring as a condition of employment that a prospective employee provide or disclose the prospective employee's wage or salary history, (ii) attempting to obtain the wage or salary history of a prospective employee from the prospective employee's current or former employers, (iii) requesting a prospective employee to complete an application for employment that includes a question inquiring about the prospective employee's wage or salary history, or (iv) asking a prospective employee in an employment interview any question intended to obtain information about the prospective employee's wage or salary history. Violations are subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $100 per violation. This bill incorporates HB 326 and HB 802.
Marijuana; legalization of simple marijuanapossession; penalty. Eliminates criminal penalties for possessionof marijuana for persons who are 21 years of age or older. The bill also decriminalizes marijuana possession for persons under 21 yearsof age and provides a civil penalty of no more than $50 for a firstviolation, $100 for a second violation, and $250 for a third or subsequentviolation. Under current law, a first offense is punishable by amaximum fine of $500 and a maximum jail sentence of 30 days, and subsequent offenses are a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill also modifies severalother criminal penalties related to marijuana. The bill establishesa regulatory scheme for the regulation of marijuana cultivation facilities,marijuana manufacturing facilities, marijuana testing facilities,and retail marijuana stores by the Board of Agriculture and ConsumerServices. The bill imposes a tax on retail marijuana and retail marijuanaproducts sold by a retail marijuana store at a rate of 9.7 percent(for a total sales tax of 15 percent) and provides that 67 percentof the revenues collected from the tax be deposited into the generalfund and 33 percent of the revenues be deposited into a "Retail MarijuanaEducation Support Fund" to be used solely for purposes of public education.
Virginia Minimum Wage Act; exclusions. Eliminatesthe exclusion in the Virginia Minimum Wage Act for persons whoseemployment is covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of1938 (FLSA) and for persons whose earning capacity is impaired byphysical deficiency, mental illness, or intellectual disability.The measure also exempts, until July 1, 2024, from the Virginia MinimumWage Act any person who is paid pursuant to a special certificatethat provides for the employment of individuals whose earning orproductive capacity is impaired by age, physical or mental deficiency,or injury at wages lower than the minimum wage otherwise requiredby the FLSA.