Chap. 497.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 6019 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, relating to jurisdiction of justices, and enlarging the same so as to
prohibit justices of the peace from taking claims for collection or making
collections thereon, and prescribing punishment for violations. {[S B 351]

Approved March 26, 1928

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
sixty hundred and nineteen of the Code of Virginia, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 6019. If a justice of the peace be a party to a suit or
warrant, or be interested in the result thereof, otherwise than as a
resident or taxpayer of the district or county, or be related to either
of the parties as grandfather, father, father-in-law, son, son-in-law,
brother, brother-in-law, nephew, uncle, first cousin, guardian, or ward,
or be a material witness for either party, or who has such claim in his
hands for collection for compensation, he shall not take cognizance
thereof, unless all parties to the suit consent thereto in writing. To
any judgment entered by a justice in such case, without such consent,
an appeal may be taken regardless of amount in controversy as other
appeals are taken, and such judgment shall be annulled and set aside:
but unless an appeal is thus taken the judgment shall be valid and
binding. But when a justice is under such disabilities, any other jus-
tice in the same district may exercise jurisdiction in the case, or if
there be no other disinterested justice in the same district, then any
other justice in the same county may exercise jurisdiction, if there be
no other objection. Nothing in this section shall be construed as per-
mitting or authorizing justices of the peace to receive claims or evi-
dences of debt for collection; and it shall be unlawful for any such
justice to receive claims of any kind for collection, or to accept or re-
ceive money or any other thing of value by way of commission or
compensation for or on account of any collection made by or through
him on any such claim, either before or after judgment.

Any justice violating this provision shall be guilty of a misde-
meanor.