As always, before reading this post, please review my disclaimer by clicking on the above link or by clicking on this link. As always, any legal principles discussed apply only to the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Introduction
First of all, my apologies that getting a new post up has taken so long. The last couple of weeks have been insane work-wise, but hopefully will be calming down soon.
We are finally at the point in the year where all legislative work for the Virginia General Assembly has wrapped up, and we know what new laws will be going on the books this year. As I did last year, I have reviewed this year's new laws for ones that are relevant to matters I have posted on this blog. Unlike last year, which saw major changes to the VRLTA and to the child support guidelines, this year's law changes are not substantial changes to blog posts I have made, but they are nonetheless important to know.
As mentioned last year, all laws - unless explicitly stating otherwise - go into effect on July 1st.
Important Change to Defamation Statute of Limitations
In my post on June 5, 2014, I discussed statutes of limitations in Virginia. Included in that discussion is that the statute of limitations for defamation is 1 year, and the clock begins to run as soon as the defamatory statement is made.
Well, we live in a new era in defamation. In the olden days, if something defamatory and harmful were said about you, it was usually pretty easy to find out who did it so you could sue. Not so in the era of the internet where anonymous "trolling" is commonplace. The General Assembly has finally recognized this, and passed HB1635, which states that if the defamatory statement is made on the internet by an anonymous user or a user with a false identity, you can file an action against them as "John Doe" (anonymous) defendants and the statute of limitations will be tolled until you find their identities or you reasonably should have.
A discerning reader might wonder why this is necessary, since normally the filing of a lawsuit tolls the statute of limitations anyways. However, in general, the filing of a lawsuit against anonymous defendants does not toll the statute of limitations because the statute applies to each individual defendant, not simply the case, so the actual defendants still have a right, usually, to be sued within the statutory time period. This new law will create an exception to that.
Retaliatory Conduct Finally Prohibited in Non-VRLTA Leases
I have written again and again about differences between leases governed by the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and leases that are not. There is a difference I never covered, however, because I feared an unscrupulous landlord could read my post covering it and engage in abusive conduct. Specifically - the VRLTA explicitly banned landlords from "retaliatory conduct" (otherwise legal conduct done by the landlord as retaliation for the tenant doing something he or she is legally entitled to do) while non-VRLTA leases had no such prohibition. I've handled situations myself where landlords engaged in clearly retaliatory conduct, but as their lease was not governed by the VRLTA, the tenant had no remedy.
This difference has finally been corrected. HB1905 actually makes it easier to prove retaliation than it had been before, and expands the new retaliation definition to also apply to non-VRLTA leases, and expressly prohibits such conduct by non-VRLTA landlords.
Now it's worth noting that the non-VRLTA rule does not have a non-waiver provision - so theoretically this right can be waived in a non-VRLTA lease, but I have a hard time believing that a lease authorizing a landlord to engage in retaliatory conduct is going to go over too well with potential tenants or with a judge.
Post-Majority Child Support for Disabled Children
Another topic I haven't directly addressed in this blog, but is in the background of many of my posts on child support, is the topic of when child support ends. In Virginia, the rule has been, since at least the 1970's, that child support ends when the child turns 18, or, if the child is a full-time high school student living with the custodial parent, then it ends at the earlier date of the child graduating from high school or the child turning 19.
There has been for some time, however, an exception to even that. If the child is permanently disabled, unable to support him or herself, and still living in the home of the parent receiving support, child support could be "continued" for so long as those three conditions (permanently disabled, unable to support self, and living in home of parent receiving support) continued to apply.
Well, litigation ensued regularly over the definition of the word "continued." Some courts held that support failed to "continue" if the support order ever terminated after the child turned 18, and so no disabled child support could be ordered. Other courts ruled that no, support "continued" any time there was child support while the child was still a minor - even if the support had been temporarily terminated, and support only failed to "continue" if there had never been child support at all. Even in those latter cases, however, parents found patently unfair results where formerly married parents got divorced after their disabled child had turned 18 (or 19, depending) and now no support order could be entered.
This year, the General Assembly has sought to undo this confusion and unfairness by passage of HB2383 and SB923, colloquially called "Conner's Law" after a severely disabled child whose father left his mother when he was just over 19 and refused to provide Conner any support. Conner's Law gets rid of the "continue" requirement altogether, and now the only requirement for a disabled child to be eligible for support (if the child meets the permanently disabled, unable to support self, and living in home of parent receiving support requirements) is that the disability must have appeared before the child turned 18 (or 19, if the conditions for support ending at 19 were met).
Conclusion
As I mentioned, not nearly as dramatic a set of law changes affecting my blog as we had last year - nonetheless, these are important changes to know about.
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