Lawsuits for Injuries to Minors
Amends
Article IV. Legislature
Section 14. Powers of General Assembly; limitations
Summary
This measure allows the General Assembly to extend the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits that involve injuries to minors.
Shall the Constitution of Virginia be amended to authorize the General Assembly to reopen and extend the statutory time period for bringing civil lawsuits which involve intentional injuries to minors?
- First resolution –SJR280 – 1993
- Second resolution – SJR172 – 1994
- Referendum legislation –SB574 – 1994
Article IV. Legislature
Section 14. Powers of General Assembly; limitations
The authority of the General Assembly shall extend to all subjects of legislation not herein forbidden or restricted; and a specific grant of authority in this Constitution upon a subject shall not work a restriction of its authority upon the same or any other subject. The omission in this Constitution of specific grants of authority heretofore conferred shall not be construed to deprive the General Assembly of such authority, or to indicate a change of policy in reference thereto, unless such purpose plainly appear.
The General Assembly shall confer on the courts power to grant divorces, change the names of persons, and direct the sales of estates belonging to infants and other persons under legal disabilities, and shall not, by special legislation, grant relief in these or other cases of which the courts or other tribunals may have jurisdiction.
The General Assembly may regulate the exercise by courts of the right to punish for contempt.
The General Assembly’s power to define the accrual date for a civil action based on an intentional tort committed by a natural person against a person who, at the time of the intentional tort, was a minor shall include the power to provide for the retroactive application of a change in the accrual date. No natural person shall have a constitutionally protected property right to bar a cause of action based on intentional torts as described herein on the ground that a change in the accrual date for the action has been applied retroactively or that a statute of limitations or statute of repose has expired.
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/constitution/article4/section14/
