2025 SESSION

HOUSE SUBSTITUTE

25106010D

HOUSE BILL NO. 2596

AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE

(Proposed by the House Committee for Courts of Justice

on ________________)

(Patron Prior to Substitute—Delegate Rasoul)

A BILL to direct the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia to issue a memorandum to court-appointed counsel representing juveniles that such counsel should have knowledge and understanding about representing a child in need of services or in need of supervision.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. That the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia shall issue a memorandum to any attorney in the Commonwealth who may be appointed to represent a child in accordance with the provisions of § 16.1-266 of the Code of Virginia that such attorney should have knowledge and an understanding about representing a child in any matter who is also alleged to be a child in need of services or a child in need of supervision, including the process of an intake officer in making the decision to file a petition alleging that a child is in need of services or in need of supervision, the factors that a juvenile and domestic relations district court considers in making a finding that a child is in need of services or in need of supervision, and the dispositional options available to the court when it makes such a finding.