Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 17.1-276 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§17.1-276. Fee allowed for providing secure remote access to land records.

A. A clerk of the circuit court who provides secure remote access to land records pursuant to §17.1-294 may charge a fee as provided in this section. The fee shall be paid to the clerk's office and deposited by the clerk into the clerk's nonreverting local fund to be used to cover operational expenses as defined in §17.1-295. The clerk may charge a flat clerk's fee to be assessed for each subscriber, as defined in §17.1-295, in an amount not to exceed $50 per month and a separate fee per image downloaded in an amount not to exceed the fee provided in subdivision A 8 of §17.1-275. The clerk's fees shall be used to cover operational expenses as defined in §17.1-295. The circuit court clerk shall enter into an agreement with each person whom the clerk authorizes to have remote access, in accordance with the security standards established by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.

The Office of the Attorney General, the Division of Debt Collection, the Department of Transportation, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation shall be exempt from paying any fee for remote access to land records. If any clerk contracts with an outside vendor to provide remote access to land records to subscribers, such contract shall contain a provision exempting the Office of the Attorney General, the Division of Debt Collection, the Department of Transportation, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation from paying any access or subscription fee.

B. The circuit court clerk shall enter into an agreement with each person whom the clerk authorizes to have remote access, in accordance with the security standards established by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. Any such agreement between a state agency or employee thereof acting in the employee's official capacity and the clerk or an outside vendor contracted by the clerk to provide remote access to land records to subscribers, or such an agreement between a state agency or employee thereof acting in the employee's official capacity and both the clerk and the outside vendor, shall not contain any provision requiring the state agency or employee thereof acting in the employee's official capacity to indemnify the clerk or the vendor.

C. The clerk may establish a program under which the clerk assesses a reasonable convenience fee that shall not exceed $2 per transaction for remote access to land records and a separate fee per image downloaded in an amount not to exceed the fee provided in subdivision A 8 of § 17.1-275.

C. D. Nothing herein shall be construed to require the use by the general public of the secure remote access to land records made available by the clerk, and such records may continue to be accessed in person in the clerk's office.