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Court of Appeals of Virginia

Field	Value
court_name	Court of Appeals of Virginia
image	Seal of Virginia.svg
established	1985
location	Virginia
type	Legislative election
authority	Va. Code § 17.1–400
appealsto	Supreme Court of Virginia
terms	8 years
positions	17
website	Court of Appeals
chiefjudgetitle	Chief Judge
chiefjudgename	Marla Graff Decker
termstart	2019
termend	-

The Court of Appeals of Virginia, established January 1, 1985, is an intermediate appellate court of 17 judges that hears appeals from decisions of Virginia's circuit courts and the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission. The Court sits in panels of at least three judges, and sometimes hears cases en banc. Appeals from the Court of Appeals go to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

History

A 1971 Virginia Court System Study Commission stated the need for a unified court system to handle appeals. The Court of Appeals of Virginia was established on January 1, 1985, as an intermediate court of limited appellate jurisdiction, initially with ten judges, with an eleventh judge added in 2000.

In March 2021, legislation was passed to expand the jurisdiction and composition of the Court from 11 judges to 17 judges, coming into effect July 1, 2021.

Judges

The Court of Appeals consists of 17 judges who are elected for eight-year terms by a majority of the members of each house of the General Assembly. The Court of Appeals may designate seven retired judges of the Court to serve as senior judges.

Jurisdiction

Reforms effective January 2022

As part of a comprehensive reform bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly and signed into law in March 2021, the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals expanded on January 1, 2022, as follows:

Litigants can now appeal as of right a lower court's decision in civil cases, and the Supreme Court of Virginia will retain the power to select which appeals it hears.
Criminal defendants can now appeal as of right a lower court's decision in criminal cases, but the Commonwealth will still need to petition the Court of Appeals if it wishes to appeal a decision in a criminal case.
The Court of Appeals now has jurisdiction to hear interlocutory appeals and petitions for review of injunctions.

An appeal filed with the Supreme Court of Virginia before January 1, 2022, remains under its jurisdiction.

Procedure

Since January 1, 2022, when the court's jurisdiction expanded, most appeals are initiated by filing a timely notice of appeal in the tribunal whose order is being appealed and a copy with the clerk of the Court of Appeals.

Decisions are issued by the Court of Appeals by written opinion or order.

Current composition

As of January 1, 2025:

Active

Judge	Born	Joined	url=http://www.courts.state.va.us/directories/terms_of_office.pdf	title=Virginia Justices and Judges Terms of Office	access-date=2024-04-01}}	Law school
, Chief Judge				Richmond
				Virginia
				W&L
				William & Mary
				Richmond
				Dayton
				George Washignton
				Texas Southern
				Vanderbilt
				Howard
				Virginia
				Virginia
				William & Mary
				Mercer
				Carolina
				WashU
				William & Mary

Senior

Judge	Active service	Chief	Senior
since
Rosemarie Annunziata	title=Lawyers in the News	journal=Virginia Lawyers Weekly	date=September 26, 2005	url=http://valawyersweekly.com/2005/09/26/lawyers-in-the-news-324/}}	——	2005
Jean Harrison Clements	last=Cooper	first=Alan	title=Judge Clements to retire from appeals court	journal=Virginia Lawyers Weekly	date=November 24, 2008	url=http://valawyersweekly.com/2008/11/24/judge-clements-to-retire-from-appeals-court/	access-date=27 March 2013}}	——	2009
William G. Petty	title=William Petty	url=https://ballotpedia.org/William_Petty	access-date=2025-12-04	website=Ballotpedia	language=en}}	——	2021
Robert J. Humphreys	title=Robert Humphreys	url=https://ballotpedia.org/Robert_Humphreys	access-date=2025-12-04	website=Ballotpedia	language=en}}	——	2024

Chief judges

Judge	Chief
E. Ballard Baker	1985
Lawrence L. Koontz, Jr.	1985–1993
Norman K. Moon	1993–1997
Johanna L. Fitzpatrick	1997–2006
Walter S. Felton, Jr.	2006–2014
Glen A. Huff	title=Glen A. Huff Named Chief Judge-elect of Court of Appeals of Virginia	url=http://www.vsb.org/site/news/item/huff_named_chief_judge_elect	website=Virginia State Bar	access-date=23 March 2015	ref=VSBHuffCJ}}
Marla Graff Decker	2019–

References

''Report of the Court System Study Commission to The Governor and The General Assembly of Virginia'', Virginia House Document No. 6 (1972 Regular Session) (1971)
"SB 1261 Court of Appeals; expands jurisdiction, increases from 11 to 17 number of judges on Court".
"The Court of Appeals of Virginia".
"LIS > Bill Tracking > SB1261 > 2021 session".
"The Court of Appeals of Virginia (informational pamphlet)". Virginia's Judicial System.
"Judges of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1985-".
"Virginia Justices and Judges Terms of Office".
(September 26, 2005). "Lawyers in the News". Virginia Lawyers Weekly.
Cooper, Alan. (November 24, 2008). "Judge Clements to retire from appeals court". Virginia Lawyers Weekly.
"William Petty".
"Robert Humphreys".
"The McCammon Group, Hon. Johanna L. Fitzpatrick (Ret.)".
"Glen A. Huff Named Chief Judge-elect of Court of Appeals of Virginia".
(3 December 2018). "Judge Marla Graff Decker is elected chief judge-elect of the Virginia Court of Appeals".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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