                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

(EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2026) COMMITMENT HEARING FOR INVOLUNTARY ADMISSION;
PREADMISSION SCREENING REPORT (§ 37.2-816)

The district court judge or special justice shall require a preadmission
screening report from the community services board that serves the county or
city where the person resides or, if impractical, where the person is located.
The report shall be admitted as evidence of the facts stated therein and shall
state (i) whether the person has a mental illness and whether there exists a
substantial likelihood that, as a result of mental illness, the person will, in
the near future, (a) cause serious physical harm to himself or others as
evidenced by recent behavior causing, attempting, or threatening harm and other
relevant information, if any, or (b) suffer serious harm due to his lack of
capacity to protect himself from harm or to provide for his basic human needs;
(ii) whether the person is in need of involuntary inpatient treatment; (iii)
whether there is no less restrictive alternative to inpatient treatment; (iv)
the recommendations for that person&#8217;s placement, care, and treatment
including, where appropriate, recommendations for mandatory outpatient
treatment; and (v) if the person is found not to meet the involuntary admission
criteria, a recommendation as to whether referral of the person to a
community-based outpatient stabilization program for voluntary treatment would
be appropriate. The board shall provide the preadmission screening report to the
court prior to the hearing, and the report shall be admitted into evidence and
made part of the record of the case. In the case of a person who has been
sentenced and committed to the Department of Corrections and who has been
examined by a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist, the judge or special
justice may proceed to adjudicate whether the person has mental illness and
should be involuntarily admitted without requesting a preadmission screening
report from the community services board.

HISTORY: 1976, c. 671, § 37.1-67.3; 1979, c. 426; 1980, cc. 166, 582; 1982, c.
471; 1984, c. 277; 1985, c. 261; 1986, cc. 349, 609; 1988, c. 225; 1989, c. 716;
1990, cc. 59, 60, 728, 798; 1991, c. 636; 1992, c. 752; 1994, cc. 736, 907;
1995, cc. 489, 668, 844; 1996, cc. 343, 893; 1997, cc. 558, 921; 1998, c. 446;
2001, cc. 478, 479, 507, 658, 837; 2004, cc. 66, 1014; 2005, c. 716; 2008, cc.
779, 850, 870; 2009, cc. 21, 838; 2024, c. 780; 2025, c. 504.