Virginia Could See Elderly Exploitation Laws This Year

For more than two years, state Sen. Mark Herring (D-33rd) has lobbied for legislation aimed at criminalizing the exploitation of elderly or maimed citizens, only to have his proposal fail in the Senate Finance Committee.

But with his legislation, Senate Bill 222, gaining support from both parties this year, the senator says 2012 may be the year the “fastest-growing crime” in Virginia becomes more-recognizably illegal.

“When I began working on this legislation in 2009, we found that Virginia’s laws were among the weakest in the nation at protecting older Virginians from financial abuse,” Herring said in an emailed statement.

While the price tag associated with Herring’s proposal was a relatively slight $50,000 – for criminal bedding, enforcement measures – SB 222 in past years has failed because a lack of funding.

In his 2012 budget proposal, however, Gov. Robert McDonnell incorporated the cost for cracking down on elderly abuse.

The bill was discussed Jan. 23 by the Courts of Justice Committee, where Chairman Sen. Thomas Norment Jr. (R-3rd) recommended Herring’s bill and two other similar proposals be consolidated into one piece of legislation. One of the other proposal’s, Senate Bill 443, was filed by Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-27th).

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Virginia Could See Elderly Exploitation Laws This Year