Chap. 396.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 4830, 4831, 4833, and 4834
of the Code of Virginia, and section 4835 of the Code of Virginia, as amended
by chapter 231 of the acts of assembly of 1922, page 417, all relating to bail
and authorizing clerks of courts of record to admit to bail. {H B 168]

Approved March 23, 1928

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
forty-eight hundred and thirty, forty-eight hundred and thirty-one,
forty-eight hundred and thirty-three and forty-eight hundred and
thirty-four of the Code of Virginia, and section forty-eight hundred
and thirty-five of the Code of Virginia, as amended by chapter two
hundred and thirty-one of the acts of assembly of nineteen hundred
and twenty-two, page four hundred and seventeen, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 4830. A bail commissioner or the clerk of the circuit court
of any county or city having criminal jurisdiction and the clerks of
the corporation or hustings courts of the several cities, shall have the
same powers to admit to bail as the circuit or corporation court or
hustings court of such county, or city or the judge thereof would have,
if application as hereinbefore provided had been made to said court
or judge; but no application may be made to said bail commissioner or
clerk after said court or judge has acted upon the application for bail
or pending proceedings before said court or judge to obtain bail. If
the bail commissioner shall refuse to admit to bail or require excessive
bail, then application may be made to said court or judge, and the same
proceedings may be had as if application had been made in the first
instance to said court or judge; provided, however, that the clerk may
refuse to hear such application.

Section 4831. If said bail commissioner, clerk or the judge of said
court be incapable for any reason of hearing said application. then
application may be made to the bail commissioner of an adjoining
county to the one in which the said applicant is held for trial, and it
bail be refused, or excessive bail be required by said commissioner,
then application may be made to the supreme court of appeals, or a
judge thereof in vacation, as provided by section forty-eight hundred
and twenty-nine in cases where the said circuit court, or the judge
thereof in vacation, had refused to admit to bail, or had required ex-
cessive bail.
Section 4833. If the amount of the bail fixed by the bail commis-
sioner or clerk be deemed inadequate, the attorney for the Common-
wealth of the county in which the accused is held for trial, may, on
reasonable notice to the accused, move the court, or the judge thereof
in vacation, to increase the amount of such bail.

Section 4834. Any bail commissioner or clerk, or any court or
judge thereof in vacation, to whom application is made, as herein pro-
vided, shall at once order said person held for trial to be brought be-
fore said commissioner, clerk, court or judge, and upon motion shall
hear testimony and admit to bail or remand him to jail.

Section 4835. The fees of said commissioner and clerk shall be
double those of a justice of the peace for the trial of a criminal case;
provided, however, in no case shall this payment be made out of the
State treasury ; provided the clerk shall not exercise any of the powers
of the bail commissioner except where the latter is unable for any
reason to act as such bail commissioner.