Authority: Article VI, Section 1, Constitution of Virginia, Title 17 17.1, Chapter 4 5, and § 19.2-163, Code of Virginia.

A. Out of the amounts for Pre-Trial, Trial and Appellate Processes shall be paid:

1. The annual salaries of Circuit Court judges, each at $108,175 from July 1, 1998, to November 24, 1998, $112,145 from November 25, 1998, to November 24, 1999, and $114,668 $116,631 from November 25, 1999, to June 30, 2000. Such salaries shall represent the total compensation from all sources for Circuit Court judges.

2. Expenses necessarily incurred for the position of judge of the Circuit Court, including clerk hire not exceeding $1,500 a year for each judge.

3. The state's share of expenses incident to the prosecution of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus by an indigent petitioner, including payment of counsel fees as fixed by the Court; the expenses shall be paid upon receipt of an appropriate order from a Circuit Court.

B. The Chief Circuit Court Judge shall restrict the appointment of special justices to conduct involuntary mental commitment hearings to those unusual instances when no General District Court or Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge can be made available or when the volume of the hearings would require more than eight hours a week.

C. There is hereby reappropriated the unexpended balance remaining at the close of business on June 30, 1998, in the appropriation made in Item 28, Chapter 924, Acts of Assembly of 1997, in the subprogram Other Court Costs and Allowances (Criminal Fund) and the balance remaining in this subprogram on June 30, 1999.