April 15, 2020–Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed several bills into law that were priority items for Due Process Institute in this year’s General Assembly session.
First, HB 873 was the result of years of hard work for reformers focused on pretrial rights and criminal discovery. This bill guarantees that by July 1 of this year, Virginia defendants will have significantly more discovery rights, whether by this law or by the implementation of the discovery rules originally approved by the state Supreme Court that have been delayed. If those rules do not go into effect, the reforms contained in HB 873 will become law. Second, HB 1522 guarantees that, with rare exceptions, one’s assets cannot be forfeited without a criminal conviction. Finally, SB 1 ends the practice of driver’s license suspension for the nonpayment of fines or fees and orders the state to reinstate the licenses for those who had a suspension for that reason. The reinstatement will require no fees on the part of the individual.
These criminal justice reform legislative victories could not have been achieved without a strong bipartisan coalition of reformers in Richmond and throughout the commonwealth. We are proud to have been a part of these successful efforts.
We Call for End of Driver’s Licenses Suspension During COVID-19
April 6, 2020–Due Process Institute advocated alongside a coalition of 50 bipartisan organizations for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators to work with their member state agencies to end driver’s licenses suspensions solely for court debt during the COVID-19 crisis.