Public Access to Virginia Court Records

Search online public court records from Virginia state courts for free. UniCourt allows you to lookup civil, family law, probate, small claims, labour, personal injury and other cases from Virginia Superior Courts, Justice Courts, Circuit Courts, & more. With UniCourt, you can look up Virginia State Court cases, find latest docket information, view case summary, check case status, download court documents, as well as track cases and get alerts on new filings.

At UniCourt, you can look up Virginia State Court records by case name, case number, party, attorney, judge, case type, docket entry & more. You can filter search results further by date of filing, jurisdiction, case type, party type, party representation, and more.

About the Virginia Court System

The Commonwealth of Virginia is home to over 8.6 million people and has an area of 42,775 square miles. Stretching from the Chesapeake Bay to the Appalachian Mountains, Virginia was one of the 13 original colonies and has many historic landmarks, including Thomas Jefferson’s iconic Monticello.

The Commonwealth’s capital is Richmond and the most populous single city in Virginia is Virginia Beach. However, Northern Virginia (NOVA) is the largest metropolitan statistical area by population, with over 3 million people living across Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Stafford, and Prince William counties.

The Virginia Courts consist of four levels: the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Circuit Courts, and the District Courts.

11M⁺

Virginia Cases

19K⁺

Court Documents

62M⁺

Docket Entries

Virginia Supreme Court

The Virginia Supreme Court is the highest court and is composed of seven justices, including one Chief Justice. As the court of last resort, the Supreme Court reviews decisions of the Circuit Courts and the Court of Appeals, decisions from the State Corporation Commission, and certain disciplinary actions of the Virginia State Bar regarding attorneys. The Court has original jurisdiction over cases involving habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, actual innocence, and matters filed by the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission related to the censure, retirement, and removal of judges.

Virginia Supreme Court Justices are elected by a majority vote of both houses of the Virginia General Assembly for a 12 year term. To be eligible to be a Supreme Court Justice, a person must be a resident of Virginia and have been a member of the Virginia Bar for at least five years. The Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court is chosen by a majority vote of the seven justices for a term of four years, during which the Chief Justice oversees the administration of the Court.

The Virginia Supreme Court decides over 1,500 each year. The Court has been involved with many important cases in U.S. jurisprudence, including Buck v. Bell, Naim v. Naim, Lucy v. Zehmer, Loving v. Virginia, and United States v. Virginia.

Virginia Court of Appeals

The Virginia Court of Appeals is the Commonwealth’s intermediate appellate court and reviews decisions of the Circuit Courts in domestic relations matters, traffic infractions, criminal cases not involving the death penalty, appeals from administrative agencies, and decisions of the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission.

The Virginia Court of Appeals is composed of 11 judges, who are elected to eight year terms by legislative election. In order to be eligible to be a Court of Appeals judge, a person must be a resident of Virginia, no older than 73, and have been a member of the Virginia Bar for at least five years. Judges on the Court of Appeals then select a Chief Judge through a peer vote, who will serve for a term of four years.

Trial Courts

Virginia has two separate trial courts levels. The Circuit Courts are the highest trial courts and the General District Courts and the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts are the lowest trial courts in the Commonwealth.

Circuit Courts

The Virginia Circuit Courts are the commonwealth’s highest trial courts with general jurisdiction. There are 31 judicial circuits in Virginia, each containing at least one county. There is a Circuit Court in each county and city in the Commonwealth, meaning that there are currently 120 Circuit Courts.

The Circuit Courts handle most civil cases with claims of more than $25,000. These courts share authority with the General District Court regarding matters involving claims between $4,500 and $25,000, as well as civil cases for personal injury and wrongful death involving claims up to $50,000. The Circuit Court may also hear felonies, family matters, and appeals from the General District Court and from the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.

Judges in the Virginia Circuit Courts are elected by a majority vote of the Virginia General Assembly to serve eight year terms. To remain on the court, they must be reselected by the legislature when their term expires. In order to serve in the Circuit Courts, a person must be a state and circuit resident, a Virginia Bar member for at least five years, and no older than 70.

General District Courts

Serving the Commonwealth through 32 judicial districts, the General District Courts are trial courts of limited jurisdiction that hear civil cases involving amounts in controversy up to $25,000 concurrently with the Circuit Courts, traffic infractions, misdemeanors, and preliminary hearings for felonies. These courts have exclusive authority to hear civil cases involving amounts of $4,500 or less.

District Court judges in Virginia are also chosen through legislative election for terms of six years. To be eligible to be a judge in the District Courts, a person must live in the district and be a member of the Virginia Bar.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts

Like the General District Courts, the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts are trial courts of limited jurisdiction. These courts hear cases involving juveniles and families, including both juvenile delinquency and dependency cases, child abuse or neglect matters, and custody, support, and visitation issues.

Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission

Established by the Virginia Constitution, the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission investigates charges of judicial misconduct or serious mental or physical disability against all state court judges, members of the State Corporation Commission, and members of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission. If the Commission deems charges serious enough to warrant the retirement, public censure, or removal of a judge, the Commission files in the Supreme Court of Virginia. The Court then decides how to proceed with the charges.

The Judicial Commission has seven members. The members of the Commission include: three judges, two lawyers, and two citizens who are not lawyers. The members are elected by the Virginia General Assembly for terms of four years.

Virginia Court Statistics

In 2019, there were 1,760 petitions filed and 1,675 cases decided in the Supreme Court of Virginia.

The Court of Appeals (CAV) was established in 1985, and has seen an increase in filings of over 25% since its inception.

In 2020, the District Courts saw over 1.4 million criminal cases filed.

The largest trial court in Virginia is the Fairfax Circuit Court, also known as the 19th Judicial Circuit Court.

Why use UniCourt to search for Virginia Court Cases?

UniCourt is your single source for state and federal court records, offering comprehensive court coverage and the most complete and accurate dataset available.

Everyday of the week, UniCourt collects all of the newly filed civil and criminal cases in the Virginia Courts we cover and lets you search through those new case filings in our CrowdSourced Library™. You can also use UniCourt to track state court litigation and get real-time case alerts sent directly to your inbox. Additionally, UniCourt empowers you to download court documents on-demand without ever having to login to a government court database, and gives you unlimited access to download millions of free state and federal court documents in our CrowdSourced Library™.

UniCourt provides you with access to several Virginia State Courts, including many of the largest counties across the state, such as the Fairfax County Courts, the Charlottesville City District Courts, the Henrico County Courts, the Richmond County Courts, and the Loudoun County Courts.

UniCourt also gives you access to court records for all of the federal courts across the state of Virginia.

UniCourt’s industry-leading Legal Data APIs provide Enterprise users with on-demand, bulk access to structured data from Virginia state and federal courts. Our Legal Data as a Service (LDaaS) collects, organizes, standardizes, and normalizes court data from Virginia state courts and all federal courts, and makes it readily available via our UniCourt Enterprise API for business development, competitive intelligence, litigation strategy, and docket management.

Public Access to Virginia Court Records

About the Virginia Court System

Virginia Supreme Court

Virginia Court of Appeals

Trial Courts

Circuit Courts

General District Courts

Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts

Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission

Virginia Court Statistics

Why use UniCourt to search for Virginia Court Cases?

U.S. District Courts

U.S. Bankruptcy Courts

U.S. Court of Appeals

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