Va. Code » Title 18.2. Crimes and Offenses Generally » Chapter 8. Crimes Involving Morals and Decency » Article 4. Family Offenses; Crimes Against Children, Etc.
Virginia Code

Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-364 (2026)

Exceptions to §§ 18.2-362 and 18.2-363

✓ current as of May 2026
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Sections 18.2-362 and 18.2-363 shall not extend to a person whose spouse shall have been continuously absent from such person for seven years next before marriage of such person to another, and shall not have been known by such person to be living within that time; nor to a person who can show that the second marriage was contracted in good faith under a reasonable belief that the former consort was dead; nor to a person who shall, at the time of the subsequent marriage, have been divorced from the bond of the former marriage; nor to a person whose former marriage was void.

Code 1950, § 20-42; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 2020, c. 900.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases, 1990–2011 · leading case: Cole v. Commonwealth, 712 S.E.2d 759 (Va. Ct. App. 2011).
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Cole v. Commonwealth, 712 S.E.2d 759 (Va. Ct. App. 2011). “The available defenses are also different, thus providing the prosecution with different paths to a conviction depending on the circumstances: The defenses found in § 18.2-364 do not apply to a bigamy prosecution under §§ 20-38.”
Stuart v. Commonwealth, 397 S.E.2d 533 (Va. Ct. App. 1990). · cites it 4× “Code § 18.2-364, however, provides for certain defenses, including the defense of a reasonable belief that a former spouse is dead.”
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