Clarifying abuse of process
HB 4568 prohibits serving legal documents (like summonses) for civil or Family Court cases on property owned by counties in West Virginia. This directly affects plaintiffs trying to initiate lawsuits against county entities and county governments as defendants. The bill adds a new section to state law (§56-3-35) explicitly banning such service on county-owned land. It does not change existing rules for serving process on private property or in other locations. The law would take effect upon enactment.
Bill status
passed
3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Feb 2026
House of Delegates Passage
Feb 2026
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Jan 20, 2026
Last action Feb 19, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons
What changed between versions
Committee Substitute
→
Engrossed Committee Substitute
·
2 edits
·
Feb 18, 2026
MINOR
The bill was updated from a 'Committee Substitute' version to an 'Engrossed' version, indicating it has passed committee review and is ready for final legislative action. The primary substantive change is the addition of Delegate Heckert to the list of sponsors, while the core text regarding family court powers and the definition of abuse of process remains unchanged.
Scope change
The bill's scope and applicability remain unchanged; the text of the law itself was not modified, only the version status and sponsor list were updated.
TECHNICAL
The bill status was updated to 'Engrossed' and the 'Committee Substitute' label was replaced with 'Engrossed Version' in the header links.
ELIGIBILITY
Delegate Heckert was added to the list of original bill sponsors.
Floor votes · House of Delegates Feb 18, 2026
How they voted
91–1
Passed · 7 other
Total votes 99
Feb 18, 2026
D
Democratic9
100% Yea
R
Republican90
91% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
19
Key actions
2
Committee
6
Feb 19, 2026
Committee
To Judiciary
upper
Feb 19, 2026
Introduced
Introduced in Senate
upper
Feb 18, 2026
Lower · Passed
Passed House (Roll No. 120)
lower
Feb 13, 2026
Lower · Passed
By substitute, do pass
lower
Feb 10, 2026
Committee
To House Judiciary
lower
Feb 9, 2026
Committee
To House Courts
lower
Jan 20, 2026
Committee
To House Judiciary
lower
Jan 20, 2026
Introduced
Introduced in House
lower
Jan 20, 2026
Committee
To Judiciary
lower
1 primary · 5 co-sponsors
Sponsors
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