CHAPTER 107

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 17-117, 17-118, 17-119, as amended. and
17-127.7, relating to the establishment of circuit courts for certain
counties and cities; circuit courts of certain counties to constitute
circuit courts of certain cities; composition of judicial circuits; regu-
lar terms of the twentieth judicial circuit established.

[H 569]

Approved March 2, 1968

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §§ 17-117, 17-118, 17-119, as amended, and 17-127.7 of the Code
of Virginia be amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 17-117. Circuit courts established for counties and cities.—For
the city of Williamsburg and the county of James City, for that part of
the county of Henrico which is without the corporate 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, Martinsville, Newport News, Nor-
folk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Radford, Richmond, Roanoke, Salem, Staun-
ton, Suffolk, and Waynesboro, there shall be a circuit court, which shal]
be called the circuit court of such county or city, or such city and county,
as the case may be.

§ 17-118. Circuit court of county to constitute circuit court of cer-
tain cities —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 al]
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, Salem and Suffolk for which sepa-
rate ogreut courts have heretofore been established and which are con-

nued.

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

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

(2) The counties of Isle of Wight, 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, Westmoreland,
Lancaster and Essex shall constitute the twelfth circuit.

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

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

(15) The counties of King George, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline
and oo and the city of Fredericksburg shall constitute the fifteenth
circuit.

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

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

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

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

(20) The county of Roanoke, * the city of Roanoke and the city of
Salem shall constitute 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 the
twenty-second circuit.

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

| 24) The counties of Lee and Scott shall constitute the twenty-fourth
circuit.

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

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

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

(28) The city of Virginia Beach shall constitute the twenty-eighth
circuit.

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

(30) The counties of Franklin and Pittsylvania shall constitute the
thirtieth circuit.

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

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

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

(84) 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 Radford
shall constitute the thirty-sixth circuit.

(387) The county of Chesterfield and the city of Colonial Heights shall
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 inhab-
itants 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 certi-
fied 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 fif-
teenth 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 judi-
cial circuit composed of the counties of King George, Stafford and Spot-
sylvania and the city of Fredericksburg.

§ 17-127.7. Regular terms of the twentieth judicial circuit.—The
regular terms of the courts of the twentieth judicial circuit shall be as

ollows:

Roanoke County: First Friday in January, February, April, June,
September and November.

City of Roanoke: First Friday in March, May, July, October and
December.

City of Salem: Third Friday in February, May, September and
December.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.