Monthly Archives: March 2023

Because Virginia General District Courts are not courts of record, there is little literature or case law surrounding jurisdictional issues in these Courts. Questions regarding the jurisdictions of appeals from General District Courts to Circuit Courts are sometimes difficult to answer. Most General District Court cases can be appealed to Circuit Court pursuant to Virginia Code § 16.1-106, and those appeals are heard de novo (i.e. the Circuit Court looks at the case with a clean slate as if it had never before been heard). However, where a General District Court case is dismissed on a jurisdictional motion by the …