Statute of Limitations in Virginia in Virginia Beach, VA Two Years, Notice Rules and Tolling

The ordinary rule

Virginia Code 8.01-243(A) requires an action for personal injuries, whatever the theory of recovery, to be brought within two years after the cause of action accrues. Subsection B sets five years for damage to property, which is why a vehicle claim and an injury claim from the same collision do not necessarily expire together. Subsection C extends certain medical malpractice periods and sets a ten-year outer limit for those actions.

Accrual is a legal determination rather than a calendar entry, and the date a person first felt a symptom is not automatically the date the clock started. This page describes the framework generally and cannot fix a deadline in any particular matter.

Death changes the section and the starting point

Virginia Code 8.01-244(B) requires a wrongful death action to be brought within two years after the death, and the action is brought by the decedent's personal representative rather than by family members individually. The two-year period therefore runs from the death rather than from the collision, which can be a different date entirely where a person survives an injury for a period.

Tolling exists, and it is statutory

Virginia Code 8.01-229 addresses the circumstances in which the running of a limitation period is suspended, including infancy and incapacity, and it addresses the effect of the death of a party. Those provisions are specific, and they are not a general fairness doctrine. Where a claim involves a minor or a person whose capacity was affected by the injury, the interaction between the tolling provisions and the two-year rule is a question worth raising early rather than after the ordinary date has passed. The brain injury page notes the same interaction.

A claim against the city runs on six months

Virginia Code 15.2-209(A) bars a claim for negligence against a city or county unless the claimant files a written statement of the nature of the claim, including the time and the place at which the injury is alleged to have occurred, within six months after the cause of action accrues. The statement is filed with the city or county attorney, or with the chief executive or mayor where there is no such attorney, and the claimant carries the burden of proving that the statement was received.

Six months is less than a third of the ordinary period, and the proof-of-receipt requirement means the method of delivery matters. A collision involving a municipal vehicle, a signal or a roadway condition can put that section in play before anyone has finished treatment.

A claim against the Commonwealth runs on one year, then eighteen months

For a claim against the Commonwealth or a transportation district, Virginia Code 8.01-195.6 calls for a written statement describing the claim, identifying when and where the injury happened and naming the agency said to be responsible, filed inside one year of accrual. The filing goes to the Attorney General or to the Division of Risk Management's Director, and instead to the Commissioner of Highways in a matter naming the Department of Transportation. Failure to file does not bar the claim where the required official or entity had actual knowledge of the claim, the time and place of the injury and the agency alleged to be liable within the deadline. Notice is deemed filed when received in the office to which it is directed.

Virginia Code 8.01-195.7 then bars the claim unless the action is commenced within eighteen months of filing the notice, or within two years after accrual. The action may be brought on denial of the claim by the Attorney General or the Director of the Division of Risk Management, or on the expiration of six months from the filing of the notice unless the claim has been compromised in the meantime. Both periods are subject to the tolling provisions of Virginia Code 8.01-229. Because Interstate 64 and much of the arterial network in the region is state right-of-way, this is not an exotic path; the highway collisions page covers the corridor itself.

Filing in the wrong forum is a different problem

Virginia Code 16.1-77 caps the general district court's civil jurisdiction at $50,000 exclusive of interest, and the Virginia Beach Circuit Court states a goal of concluding civil cases within eighteen months of filing, except in exceptional cases brought to its attention. The circuit court also requires a pretrial conference in all civil jury trials under Rules 1:19 and 4:13 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia, requires a completed civil cover sheet with the initial pleading, and requires counsel to file a praecipe for the setting of a trial date or to contact the court to set an agreed date.

The nonsuit is not an extension

Virginia Code 8.01-380 allows a party to take a nonsuit as to a cause of action or party, but only before a motion to strike the evidence has been sustained, before the jury retires from the bar, or before the action has been submitted to the court for decision. Only one nonsuit is available as a matter of right against the same party, and additional nonsuits require reasonable notice to counsel of record, an attempt to notify unrepresented parties, or a stipulation. A party taking a nonsuit must tell the court about any prior nonsuit of that cause of action, and the order must reflect each prior nonsuit with its date and court. Where notice of a nonsuit of right is given within seven days of trial or during trial, the court may assess reasonable expert witness fees and travel costs actually incurred by the opposing party because earlier notice was not given.

Deadlines are the one part of a claim that cannot be repaired later, and this page is general information rather than legal advice about any date; a specific date should be confirmed with the attorney advertising on this site.