CHAPTER 237
An Act to amend and reenact §§ 17-117, as amended, 17-118, and 17-119,
as amended, of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of
Virginia by adding a section numbered 17-127.15, so as to provide a
circuit court for the City of Colonial Heights; to give such court
exclusive jurisdiction over the City of Colonial Heights; to place the
circuit court of the City of Colonial Heights in a judicial circuit; and
to prescribe when the term of such court is to begin.

[H 493]

Approved March 10, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 17-117, as amended, 17-118, and 17-119, as amended, of the
Code of Virginia, be amended and reenacted, and that the Code of Virginia
be amended by adding a section numbered 17-127.15, as follows:

§ 17-117. For the city of Williamsburg and the county of James
City, for that part of the county of Henrico which is without the cor-
porate limits of the city of Richmond, for every other county and for each
of the cities of Alexandria, Bristol, Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Clifton
Forge, Colonial Heights, Fredericksburg, Hopewell, Lynchburg, Martins-
ville, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Radford, Rich-
mond, Roanoke, Suffolk and Waynesboro, there shall be a circuit court,
which shall be called the circuit court of such county or city, or such city
and county, as the case may be.

§ 17-118. The circuit court of any county, within which is situated
any city which has undergone transition from a city of the second class
to a city of the first class since the present Constitution went into effect,
shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the corporation court of such city
in all proceedings at law or in equity, except criminal prosecutions; and
the circuit court of such county shall constitute the circuit court of such
city; provided that this section shall not apply to the cities of Bristol,
Colonial Heights, Fredericksburg, Martinsville and Suffolk for which sep-
arate circuit courts have heretofore been established and which are
continued.

§ 17-119. The State shall be divided into judicial circuits as follows:

(1) The county of Norfolk shall constitute the first circuit.

(2) The counties of Nansemond and Southampton and the city of
Suffolk shall constitute the second circuit.

(3) The counties of Prince George, Sussex, Surry, Greensville and
Brunswick and the city of Hopewell shall constitute the third circuit.

(4) The counties of Dinwiddie, Nottoway, Amelia and Powhatan and
the city of Petersburg shall constitute the fourth circuit.

(5) The counties of Appomattox, Charlotte, Prince Edward, Buck-
ingham and Cumberland shall constitute the fifth circuit.

(6) The counties of Bedford and Campbell and the city of Lynchburg
shall constitute the sixth circuit.

'(7) The counties of Henry and Patrick and the city of Martinsville
shall constitute the seventh circuit.

(8) The counties of Madison, Greene, Fluvanna and Albemarle and
the city of Charlottesville shall constitute the eighth circuit.

(9) The counties of Culpeper, Orange, Louisa and Goochland shall
constitute the ninth circuit.

(10) The county of Henrico and the city of Richmond shall constitute
the tenth circuit.

(11) The cities of Hampton and Newport News shall constitute the
eleventh circuit, provided that after July one, nineteen hundred and sixty
two, the city of Hampton shall constitute the eleventh circuit.

(12) The counties of Richmond, Northumberland, Westmorelan
Lancaster and Essex shall constitute the twelfth circuit.

(13) The counties of Gloucester, Mathews, King and Queen, Kin
William and Middlesex shall constitute the thirteenth circuit.

(14) The counties of New Kent, Charles City, York and James Cit
and the cities of Warwick and Williamsburg shall constitute the fourteent
circuit, provided that after July one, nineteen hundred and fifty-eigh
the counties of New Kent, Charles City, York and James City and th
cities of Newport News and Williamsburg shall constitute the fourteent
circuit until July one, nineteen hundred and sixty, when the city of New
port News will cease to be a part of the fourteenth circuit.

(15) The counties of King George, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Carolin
and Hanover and the city of Fredericksburg shall constitute the fifteent
circuit.

(16) The counties of Prince William and Fairfax and the city oa
Alexandria shall constitute the sixteenth circuit. |

(17) The counties of Frederick, Clarke, Warren and Shenandoa
shall constitute the seventeenth circuit.

(18) The counties of Augusta, Highland and Rockbridge and the cit
of Buena Vista shall constitute the eighteenth circuit.

(19) The counties of Bath, Alleghany, Craig and Botetourt and th
city of Clifton Forge shall constitute the nineteenth circuit.

(20) The county of Roanoke and the city of Roanoke shall constitut
the twentieth circuit.

(21) The counties of Pulaski, Carroll, Wythe and Grayson shall con
stitute the twenty-first circuit.

(22) The counties of Bland, Tazewell and Giles shall constitute th
twenty-second circuit.

(23) The counties of Washington and Smyth and the city of Brist«
shall constitute the twenty-third circuit.

(24) The counties of Lee and Scott shall constitute the twenty-fourt:
circui

(25) The counties of Rockingham and Page shall constitute th
twenty-fifth circuit.

(26) The counties of Rappahannock, Fauquier and Loudoun sha.
constitute the twenty-sixth circuit.

(27) The counties of Buchanan, Dickenson and Russell shall consti
tute the twenty-seventh circuit.

(28) The counties of Princess Anne and Isle of Wight shall consti
tute the twenty-eighth circuit.

(29) The counties of Amherst and Nelson and the city of Waynes
boro shall constitute the twenty-ninth circuit.

(80) The counties of Franklin and Pittsylvania shall constitute th
thirtieth circuit.

(31) The counties of Accomack and Northampton shall constitut
the thirty-first circuit.

(32) The city of Norfolk shall constitute the thirty-second circuit.

(33) The county of Wise shall constitute the thirty-third circuit.

(34) The counties of Halifax, Mecklenburg and Lunenburg shall con
stitute the thirty-fourth circuit.

(85) The county of Arlington shall constitute the thirty-fifth circuit

(86) The counties of Floyd and Montgomery and the city of Radfore
shall constitute the thirty-sixth circuit.

(837) The county of Chesterfield and the city of Colonial Heights shal
constitute the thirty-seventh circuit.

(38) On and after July one, nineteen hundred sixty, the city of Ports
mouth shall constitute the thirty-eighth circuit. The judge of the twenty-
eighth judicial circuit residing in the city of Portsmouth on July one,
nineteen hundred sixty, shall be the judge of the thirty-eighth judicial
circuit for the balance of the term for which elected as judge of the twenty-
eighth judicial circuit and shall forthwith relinquish his office as judge
of the twenty-eighth judicial circuit.

(39) On and after July one, nineteen hundred sixty-two, the city of
Newport News shall constitute the fortieth circuit.

Should the federal census of nineteen hundred and sixty or other
census provided for by law disclose that the counties of Hanover and
Caroline have a combined population in excess of forty thousand inhabi-
tants then the senior judge of the fifteenth circuit shall enter an order in
the circuit courts of both of such counties setting out such fact. A certified
copy of such order shall be transmitted by the clerk of each such court to
the Secretary of the Commonwealth, who shall file and preserve the same
in the records of his office and shall report to the Governor at once the
fact that such counties have a combined population in excess of forty
thousand, as disclosed by such census. The Governor, upon receiving such
report, shall at once make proclamation ‘of such fact, copies of which
proclamation shall be certified to the clerks of each of the courts then
constituting the fifteenth judicial circuit who shall endorse thereon the date
when received and record the same in the common-law order books of such
courts.

After such proclamation has been recorded in the manner hereinabove
provided, the counties of Hanover and Caroline shall constitute the fifteenth
judicial circuit, and the counties of King George, Stafford and Spotsylvania
and the city of Fredericksburg shall become and constitute a new judicial
circuit, designated and known as the thirty-ninth circuit.

In such event, the Governor shall designate which of the judges of
the fifteenth judicial circuit shall continue to be the judge of that circuit,
and which of such judges shall be the judge of the new thirty-ninth judicial
circuit composed of the counties of King George, Stafford and Spotsylvania
and the city of Fredericksburg.

§ 17-127.15. The regular terms of the circuit court for the City of
Colonial Heights shall begin on the third Monday in the months of Febru-
ary, June and October.

. Anemergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.