Chap. 352.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4988 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, as amended, relating to trial justices. [H B 239]

Approved March 24, 1930

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
forty-nine hundred and eighty-eight of the Code of Virginia, as amend-
ed, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 4988. (1) In counties having a population of six thou-
sand inhabitants or more, as shown by the last preceding United States
census, there may be appointed, and in counties having a population of
less than twenty thousand inhabitants and adjoining cities having a
population of not less than thirty thousand five hundred, and not more
than one hundred thousand inhabitants, as shown by the United States
census of nineteen hundred and twenty, there shall be appointed, by
the judge of the circuit court for such county, for a period of four
years, and every four years thereafter, a trial justice for such county,
who shall be a resident of said county, or any town or city within the
geographical limits of said county; provided, that in the county of
Carroll, at the general election in November, nineteen hundred and
twenty-eight, and every four years thereafter, there shall be elected
by the duly qualified voters of the county, a trial justice whose term
of office shall be four years beginning the first day of January next
following his election. Any vacancy occurring in the office of trial
justices shall be filled by the judge of the circuit court of said county.

(2) The courts of the trial justice shall be opened for the trans-
action of business every day in the year, except Sundays and legal
holidays. The circuit court shall appoint a substitute trial justice, and
may at any time revoke such appointment, and shall make a new ap-
pointment in the event of such revocation, or in the event of the death,
absence or disability of such substitute trial justice. In the event of
the inability of the trial justice to perform the duties of his office by
reason of sickness, absence, vacation, interest in the claim, proceedings
or parties before his court, or otherwise such substitute trial justice
shall perform the duties of the office during such period of disability
or inability, and shall receive for his services a per diem compensation
equivalent to one-twenty-fifth of a monthly installment of the salary
of the trial justice, deductible from the salary of said trial justice, pay-
able as the salary of the said trial justice is paid. ,

(3) Before entering upon the performance of his duties, the trial
justice and the substitute trial justice shall take oaths required by law
and they shall enter into bond in the penalty of two thousand dollars,
each before the circuit court, or the clerk thereof, with surety, to be ap-
proved by said court or clerk, and conditioned for the faithful per-
formance of their duties.

(4) Such trial justice shall receive a salary of not less than six
hundred dollars per annum, nor more than thirty-six hundred dollars
per annum, to be fixed by the judge of the circuit court of such county,
and to be approved by the board of supervisors of said county, to be
paid in monthly installments out of the treasury of the county and
he shall receive no other compensation for his services as trial justice.
The trial justice shall charge and collect all fees, which justices of the
peace for counties are authorized to charge and collect, and which have
not been paid in advance, and all fees collected by the said trial justice
shall be turned into the county treasury, excepting those fees belonging
to the issuing officers, as provided herein; provided, however, that in
any county in which there is an incorporated town or towns, fines as-
sessed by the trial justice for violation of town ordinances shall be
paid into the treasury of the town whose ordinance was violated; and
all fees accruing to such trial justice, in the trial of warrants issued
by the mayor or police justice of any such town in his jurisdiction, for
any offense committed within the corporate limits of such town, shall
also be paid into the said town treasury.

The council, or other governing body, of any incorporated town in
any county having, or which may hereafter have, such trial justice, as
is provided herein, shall contribute to the salary of said trial justice in
that proportion which the assessed valuation of the tangible property
assessed for local taxation in such town, bears to the total assessed
valuation of such property, assessed for local taxation in the entire
county, and provided, further, the provisions of this act giving juris-
diction to a trial justice over incorporated towns in his county, and
providing for said towns to receive a part of his fees and contribute to
his salary as aforesaid shall not be effective until and unless the same
shall be first agreed to by resolutions adopted by the council or coun-
cils of said town or towns and the board of supervisors of the county
in which said town or towns are located.

(5) Jurisdiction of such trial justice shall be as follows:

(a) The said trial justices shall be conservators of the peace
within the limits of their county or counties or corporations and shall
have exclusive original jurisdiction for the trial of all offenses against
local laws, ordinances and regulations of said county or ordinances of
cities and incorporated towns for which they are appointed.

(b) | The said trial justice shall have jurisdiction in all civil mat-
ters now cognizable by justices of the peace for the county, and shall,
in addition thereto, have concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit court
in all civil matters where the claim does not exceed the sum of three
hundred dollars (exclusive of interest), and shall have jurisdiction of
all matters and things mentioned in subsection five of section nineteen
nundred and fifty-three of the Code of Virginia, after appointment
of such trial justice. No other justice of the peace, mayor or juvenile
judge in said counties shall hereafter exercise such jurisdiction as is
nerein- conferred on said trial justices except as provided herein. -
Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent justices of
the peace from issuing attachments, and warrants in civil and criminal
cases under general law.

(c) The said trial justice shall also have jurisdiction to try and
decide attachment cases where the amount of the plaintiff’s claim does
not exceed the general jurisdiction of said trial justice and the pro-
ceedings on any such attachment shall conform to the provisions of
chapter two hundred and sixty-nine of the Code of nineteen hundred
and nineteen; save when an attachment other than under section sixty-
four hundred and sixteen is returned executed, and the defendant has
not been served with a copy thereof, the said trial justice, upon affi-
davit in conformity with section sixty-two hundred and sixty-nine of
the Code of nineteen hundred and nineteen, shall forthwith cause to
be posted at the front door of the courthouse a copy of said attach-
ment, and shall file a certificate of the fact with the papers in the case,
and in addition to the said posting the plaintiff, in the said attachment,
or his attorney, shall give to the trial justice the last known address
or abode of the said defendant, verified by affidavit and the said trial
justice shall forthwith mail a copy of the said attachment to the said
defendant, at his or her last known address, or place of abode; or, if
said defendant be a corporation, at its last known address, and the
mailing of the said copy as aforesaid shall be certified by the said trial
justice in writing, and such certificate shall be filed with the papers in
the case, and after the said copy of attachment has been so posted and
mailed, as aforesaid, for fifteen days, the said trial justice may pro-
ceed to try and decide the said attachment.

(d) The trial justices shall have in criminal cases the same juris-
diction for their respective counties as is now or may hereafter be
vested by general law in the police justices of cities, but nothing in this
section shall be construed to interfere with or abridge the rights of the
justices of the peace and mayors to issue warrants and subpoenas in
criminal cases, or to grant bail in any case as now exists, and to re-
ceive their fees therefor, but said warrants and subpoenas shall be re-
turnable before said trial justice for action thereon. The said. trial
justice shall have jurisdiction of all misdemeanors arising under the
prohibition laws of the Commonwealth, with an appeal of right to the
circuit court as provided for by the general law with reference to
appeals.

(6) The justice of the peace and mayors in all counties affected
by this section shall make returnable before said trial justices all pro-
cesses issued by them in criminal cases, and said trial justices shall sit
at the county seat of their respective counties, and such other places
as may be designated by the judge of the circuit court, for the hearing
of all cases which may be brought before him.

(7) All the provisions of law now in force, or which may be
hereafter enacted governing preliminary examinations, granting of bail,
procedure, and appeals in both civil and criminal cases cognizable by
justices of the peace of counties not affected by this.act shall apply in
like manner to cases tried before the trial justices appointed hereunder,
unless otherwise provided herein except that in all civil and criminal
cases triable before such trial justices, no removal to any other court
shall be allowed; nor shall an appeal be allowed in any civil case in
which the claim does not exceed the sum or value of twenty dollars
exclusive of interest.

(8) The board of supervisors shall provide suitable quarters for
trial purposes for the court of such trial justices at the county seat, or
at such other place or places as may be designated by the judge of the
circuit court, and shall provide necessary books, stationery and sup-
plies for said trial justices. Such books and supplies shall be kept by
the trial justices subject to the supervision of the circuit court in which
said trial justice presides.

(9) All papers connected with any of the proceedings in the trial
of cases before such trial justices shall be returned to the clerk’s office
of the circuit court of the county, within twelve months after final
decision, and shall be properly filed, indexed and preserved, by the
clerk thereof, who shall receive the same fees as are allowed for receiv-
ing, filing and indexing papers returned by justices of the peace.

(10) Each trial justice shall keep a docket in which shall be en-
tered all cases tried and prosecuted before him and the final disposi-
tion of the same, together with an account of costs and fines. ,

(11) The trial justices shall have power to make and enforce such
reasonable rules of practice as are not in conflict with law.

(12) Two counties having an aggregate population of not less
than ten thousand inhabitants, according to the last preceding United
States census, or the combination of an incorporated town or city with
a county may, in the discretion of the judge, or judges, having jurisdic-
tion over said counties, be combined and one trial justice appointed for
the two counties by the said judge, or judges, and the trial justices shall
be a resident of one of the said counties, or any town or city within
the geographical limits of one of said counties, and in the event of the
combination of two or more counties, the salary of the trial justice
shall not be less than six hundred dollars per annum, nor more than
thirty-six hundred dollars per annum, to be paid by said counties in
proportion to their population by each of said counties, as provided in
section four of this act; and provided, further, that all cases arising
in any one of said counties, shall be tried and disposed of in the county
of its origin. In misdemeanor cases tried by the said trial justices the
Commonwealth’s attorney shall receive no fee for his appearance ex-
cept in those particular violations of law in which the Commonwealth’s
attorney is required to appear by the laws of this Commonwealth and
in those cases he shall receive such fees as are fixed by law.

(13) Provided, that the judge of the circuit court of Franklin
county shall appoint a licensed attorney at law as trial justice for said
county, and said trial justice shall act as judge of the juvenile and
domestic relations court for said county, and upon the appointment of
said trial justice, the office of judge of juvenile and domestic relations
court is hereby declared to be vacant, and the board of supervisors are
hereby directed to fix the salary of said trial justice at a sum equal
to the total sum of all cost collected or collectable in all the cases tried
or heard before the justices of the peace (not including fee for issuing
warrants) in Franklin county, including judge of juvenile and domestic
relations court, for the year ending August thirty-first, nineteen hun-
dred and twenty-five, in so far as is possible, said salary to be within
the limits hereinbefore prescribed; and upon the petition of ten quali-
fied voters of said county the trial justice for said county shall be
elected by the people as hereafter provided for.

(14) The circuit court or corporation court or the judge thereof
in vacation, is hereby authorized and empowered by order duly entered
from time to time, to adopt such reasonable rules and regulations as
may be deemed necessary to exercise general supervisory power over
said trial justice for the purpose of perfecting and enforcing any detail
matter not otherwise provided for herein, or by legislative enactment.

All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

Provided, however, that the provisions of this act shall not become
effective in any county, except counties having a population of less
than twenty thousand inhabitants and adjoining cities having a popu-
lation of not less than thirty thousand five hundred and not more than
one hundred thousand inhabitants, as shown by the United States
census of nineteen hundred and twenty, until it shall have been adopted
by the board of supervisors for said county.

The provisions of this act shall not apply to counties adjacent to
cities having a population of one hundred thousand or more by the last
United States census.