HB 2174 Virginia House of Delegates · 2025 Regular Session

Legal duty; action for damages for legal malpractice concerning estate planning.

Summary

Legal duty; action for damages for legal malpractice concerning estate planning; third parties to an attorney-client contract. Provides that an attorney does not owe a legal duty to a person other than the client for the purpose of the client's estate planning, including the provision of legal advice or the preparation of legal documents, unless the client and attorney enter into a signed, written agreement expressly allowing for such. The bill provides that its provisions are declarative of existing law. The bill also repeals the provisions under current law that specify the statute of limitations for legal malpractice actions relating to contracts for legal services concerning estate planning and the tolling of such statute of limitations. This bill is a recommendation of the Boyd-Graves Conference and is identical to SB 1115.

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

House of Delegates Passage

Feb 2025

Senate Passage

Feb 2025

Signed into Law

Mar 2025

Introduced Jan 7, 2025 Signed Mar 24, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Enrolled → Chaptered · 2 edits

MINOR

This bill enacts HB 2174 as Chapter 450 of the 2025 Virginia Acts of Assembly, formally approving the legislation that amended § 64.2-520.1 of the Code of Virginia regarding legal malpractice in estate planning. The substantive legal provisions remain unchanged from the enrolled version, with only formatting and chapter designation adjustments made during the final chaptering process.

TECHNICAL

Added chapter designation (Chapter 450) and approval date (March 24, 2025) to formally complete the legislative process. No substantive policy changes were made to the legal provisions.

Adjusted formatting and spacing throughout the document to comply with final chaptering requirements. The actual legal text of § 64.2-520.1 remains identical to the enrolled version.

Floor votes · Senate Feb 11, 2025 · House of Delegates Jan 30, 2025

How they voted

40–0

Passed

Total votes 40

Feb 11, 2025

D Democratic21

21 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican19

19 Yea

100% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 24, 2025

Signed into law

Approved by Governor-Chapter 450 (Effective 07/01/25)

executive

Feb 20, 2025

Upper · Passed

Signed by President

upper

Feb 17, 2025

Lower · Passed

Signed by Speaker

lower

Feb 17, 2025

Lower · Passed

Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2174ER)

lower

Feb 12, 2025

Upper · Passed

Passed Senate (39-Y 0-N)

upper

Feb 11, 2025

Upper · Passed

Passed by for the day

upper

Feb 10, 2025

Upper · Passed

Reported from Courts of Justice (12-Y 0-N)

upper

Jan 31, 2025

Committee

Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice

upper

Jan 30, 2025

Lower · Passed

Read third time and passed House (96-Y 0-N)

lower

Jan 24, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N)

lower

Jan 20, 2025

Lower · Passed

Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N)

lower

Jan 17, 2025

Committee

Assigned Courts sub: Civil

lower

Jan 7, 2025

Committee

Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors