CHAPTER 390

An Act to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered
17-127.19, to require bimonthly terms for the courts of the Fifteenth
Judicial Circuit; and to amend and reenact § 17-127, as amended, of
the Code of Virginia, relating to commencement and number of terms
of circuit courts.

[S 331]

Approved April 2, 1968

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia be amended by adding a section numbered
17-127.19, and that § 17-127, as amended, of the Code of Virginia be
amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 17-127.19. In each of the counties of Caroline and Hanover, com-
prising the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, there shall be held bimonthly terms
of the circuit court of each such county; provided, that the judge of such
Circuit may, by an order to be entered on the common-law order book
of any such court, omit one of the terms thereof during each year, unless
the public business shall require that all of the terms be held for the
proper transaction of business.

§ 17-127. The commencement and number of their terms.—Unless
otherwise provided, there shall be held two terms of each of the city circuit
courts in each year and in each of the counties there shall be held bimonthly
terms of the circuit court of such county, four of which terms in those
counties in which more than four terms are provided, to be designated by
the judge thereof, shall be known as quarterly terms, at which all civil
cases for which juries may be required shall be tried, unless the judge of
any circuit shall enter of record that juries shall be summoned to other
than the quarterly terms for the trial of civil cases. At any of the terms all
criminal and chancery causes shall be tried, but the judge of the court
may, in any county in which more than five terms are provided, by an order
to be entered on the common-law order book of the court, omit one of the
terms thereof during each year, unless the public business shall require
that all of the terms be held for the proper transaction of business. The
number of terms of the courts and the days for the commencement of the
same shall be as fixed by law at the time this Code takes effect, but the
judge of every such court may, from time to time, change the day for the
commencement of the terms thereof, or any of them, and the judge of the
Circuit Court of the city of Bristol may change the number of terms of such
court; provided, however, that the days for the commencement of the terms
of (1) the circuit courts of the eighth, fourteenth, * twentieth, twenty-
second, twenty-fifth, twenty-eighth, thirty-second, and thirty-fifth circuits,
(2) of the circuit courts of the twenty-third circuit, except the Circuit
Court of the city of Bristol, (8) of the Circuit Court for the county of
Buckingham, (4) of the Circuit Court for the county of Prince George in
its March and September terms, and (5) of the Circuit Court for the
county of Franklin may not be so changed by the respective judges thereof.

The terms of the Circuit Court for the county of Appomattox shall
begin on the Tuesday after the first Monday of each of the four months
for which terms of court are now required; the terms of the Circuit Court
for the county of Charlotte shall begin on the Tuesday after the first
Monday of each of the six months for which terms of court are now
required.

The clerks of such courts within thirty days after such change shall
send a copy of the order making it to the clerk of the House of Delegates
and, for failure so to do, shall forfeit fifty dollars.