In any criminal or traffic case in a court not of record, if the court rules that a statute or local ordinance is unconstitutional, it shall upon motion of the Commonwealth, or the locality if a local ordinance is the subject of the ruling, stay the proceedings and issue a written statement of its findings of law and relevant facts, if any, in support of its ruling and shall transmit the case, together with all papers, documents, and evidence connected therewith, to the circuit court for a determination of constitutionality. Either party may file a brief with the circuit court. Either party may request oral argument before the circuit court. The circuit court shall give the issue priority on its docket. If the circuit court rules that the statute or local ordinance is unconstitutional, the Commonwealth or the locality may appeal such interlocutory order to the Court of Appeals and thereafter to the Supreme Court; however, if the circuit court rules that the statute or local ordinance is constitutional, the circuit court shall remand the case to the court not of record for trial consistent with the ruling of the circuit court.
2006, cc. 571, 876; 2010, cc. 303, 609.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
4
cases (
1 in the last 5 years), 2007–2023 · leading case:
City of Chesapeake v. Evans, 91 Va. Cir. 247 (Chesapeake Cir. Ct. 2015).
City of Chesapeake v. Evans, 91 Va. Cir. 247 (Chesapeake Cir. Ct. 2015).
· cites it 12× “Smith This matter is before the Court pursuant to Va. Code § 16.1-131.1, regarding the ruling of the Chesapeake General District Court that Va.”
Commonwealth v. Price, 73 Va. Cir. 509 (Henrico Cir. Ct. 2007).
· cites it 7× “The matter is now before this Court pursuant toVa. Code § 16.1-131.1. Va. Code § 46.2-206.”
Commonwealth v. Fields, 74 Va. Cir. 194 (Richmond County Cir. Ct. 2007).
· cites it 6× “This matter is now before this Court pursuant to Va. Code § 16.1-131.1. The sole issue in this case, as agreed to by the parties, is whether the assessment of civil remedial fees on residents of Virginia, but not on nonresidents, violates the equal protection clauses of the…”
Mogensen v. Welch (W.D. Va. 2023).
“Just because the General District Court is not a court of equity does not mean that it cannot entertain Plaintiffs’ constitutional claims. In fact, constitutional challenges are allowed in general district court.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.