Virginia family law changed in several significant ways on July 1, 2026, and men facing divorce, custody disputes, support claims, or protective-order litigation should understand what changed before assuming yesterday’s strategy still works today.  For Virginia fathers, some of the amendments affect the language courts use for parenting time, access to children’s records, custody evaluations, lawful substance use, grandparent visitation, school safety provisions, and even whether a violent offender can repeatedly return to court seeking custody or visitation.

For husbands who are the family’s primary breadwinners, other changes affect divorce procedure, the importance of the separation date, valuation and classification of marital debts, post-divorce enforcement, military divorce jurisdiction, and the possibility of temporary child support in a family-abuse protective-order case. Virginia law remains gender-neutral on its face. But a man walking into family court with substantial income, significant assets, children he wants to continue raising, or allegations he has to defend has a lot at stake. Here, we’ll cover the 2026 Virginia family law changes men need to know.

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Virginia Courts Now Have Express Authority to Order Custody Evaluations

One of the most significant 2026 custody amendments appears in Virginia Code § 20-124.2.

The statute now expressly provides that, in any circuit- or district-court case involving custody or visitation, a judge may order a custody evaluation or an independent mental-health or psychological evaluation to assist in determining the child’s best interests. The court may also determine how the parties will pay the costs of the evaluation.

Why This Matters for Virginia Fathers

Custody litigation can quickly become a contest of competing narratives. One parent may accuse the other of being uninvolved, unstable, controlling, emotionally unavailable, unsafe, or incapable of handling substantial parenting time. Fathers may find themselves defending claims that have little resemblance to how they actually parent their children.

An independent evaluation can potentially give the court information beyond simply what Mom says about Dad and what Dad says about Mom. But an evaluation is not automatically good news for either side. An evaluator may look at parenting behavior, family relationships, communications, mental-health concerns, home environments, and other facts relevant to the child’s welfare. That makes preparation important.

A father seeking substantial custody should be able to demonstrate his actual role in his children’s lives: school, medical appointments, extracurricular activities, homework, meals, discipline, transportation, routines, and day-to-day care. Our Father’s Guide to Winning Child Custody in Virginia explains the broader custody framework and the evidence fathers should be thinking about when building a case. The point is not merely to say you are an involved father, but to build a record showing it.

Virginia Courts May Now Call Visitation “Parenting Time”

Another 2026 change to Virginia Code § 20-124.2 allows a court, when referring to a parent, to use “parenting time” as synonymous with “visitation.” The Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court statute contains the same new terminology in Virginia Code § 16.1-278.15. That may sound cosmetic. For fathers, it is meaningful language.

Fathers Are Parents, Not Visitors

A visitor stops by. A father parents. 

When children are with Dad, he may be getting them ready for school, cooking dinner, driving to soccer practice, helping with algebra, administering medication, dealing with bedtime, enforcing rules, and handling all the unglamorous responsibilities that make someone a parent.

“Parenting time” better reflects that reality. But men should understand what the amendment does not do. It does not create an automatic right to 50/50 physical custody. Virginia still provides that there is no presumption in favor of any particular form of custody and no presumption or legal inference in favor of either parent. Custody remains based on the child’s best interests.

Fathers trying to understand the difference between legal custody, physical custody, joint custody, and shared custody should also read our explanation of shared custody versus joint custody in Virginia.

A new label does not win a custody case. Evidence does.

Lawful Substance Use Alone Cannot Be the Basis for Restricting Custody

This is an important 2026 protection.

The amended Virginia Code § 20-124.2 says that a person’s legal possession or consumption of substances authorized under specified Virginia laws alone cannot serve as a basis to restrict custody or visitation unless additional facts establish that the possession or consumption is contrary to the child’s best interests.

A corresponding provision appears in Virginia Code § 16.1-278.15, which also addresses court-ordered drug testing in custody and visitation proceedings.

Why This Could Matter to Fathers

Family-law allegations often involve alcohol, prescription medications, cannabis, or other substances. The new statutory language means lawful possession or consumption, standing alone, should not be enough to restrict a parent’s custody or parenting time. That is not a license to become impaired while caring for your children. If substance use affects supervision, driving, judgment, safety, consistency, or some other aspect of the child’s best interests, the court can still consider those facts.

The distinction is important:

Lawful use by itself is not the same thing as evidence of unsafe parenting. For a father being attacked merely because he lawfully consumes a substance, that statutory distinction may matter.

A Court Can Bar Certain Violent Offenders From Repeatedly Filing Custody or Visitation Cases

The amended Virginia Code § 20-124.2 also gives courts significant authority in cases involving extremely serious violence.

A parent or other legal custodian may petition the court to prevent another parent from filing custody or visitation petitions concerning the child for a period of up to 10 years when the restriction is in the child’s best interests and the other parent has been convicted of specified serious offenses.

The covered crimes include certain murder or voluntary-manslaughter offenses and related felony attempts, conspiracies or solicitations, as well as specified felony assaults, woundings, and sexual assaults involving particular family victims. A guardian ad litem must be appointed for the child when such a petition is filed.

Why Men Should Know About It

The law works in both directions. A father protecting a child from a mother convicted of a qualifying offense may be able to seek this relief. A father with a qualifying conviction may face an extraordinary restriction on his ability to return to court seeking custody or visitation.

This is not an ordinary “high conflict” custody remedy. It applies to specifically defined, serious criminal circumstances.

Certain Custody Orders Must Be Provided to a Child’s School

The 2026 amendments also created a practical school-safety provision.

Under Virginia Code § 20-124.2, when a custody or visitation order prohibits a party from picking a child up from school, the court must order a party to provide the school with a copy of the order, generally within three business days after receiving it.

The requirement can follow the child to a new school when enrollment changes. The statute also makes clear that school personnel are not being required to interpret or enforce the substantive terms of a custody order. The J&DR counterpart appears in Virginia Code § 16.1-278.15.

Why Fathers Should Care

High-conflict custody cases are full of details that can become critically important. If an order says one parent cannot pick up the child from school, compliance is no longer just an issue between the adults. The statute creates a mechanism for getting that order into the school’s hands quickly.

Whether you are the parent being protected by the provision or the parent subject to the restriction, read the order carefully and follow it.

Virginia Added a Specific Grandparent-Visitation Provision

The amended Virginia Code § 20-124.2 also addresses a particular type of grandparent-visitation case.

When a natural or adoptive parent of a minor child is deceased or incapacitated, the grandparent related to that parent may introduce evidence showing that the deceased or incapacitated parent consented to visitation between the grandparent and grandchild. If that consent is proven by a preponderance of the evidence, the court may then determine whether grandparent visitation is in the minor child’s best interests.

How This Could Affect Fathers

Imagine a father raising his children after their mother dies or becomes incapacitated. The maternal grandparents may seek visitation and attempt to prove that their daughter wanted them to remain involved with the children. Now reverse the facts. If Dad dies or becomes incapacitated, his parents may be the grandparents trying to preserve a relationship with their son’s children. The new provision does not make every grandparent automatically entitled to visitation. But it creates a specific evidentiary route in these circumstances.

Parents Now Have Express Access to Covered Daycare and Home-Based Child-Care Records

The 2026 amendment to Virginia Code § 20-124.6 expressly adds records from a child day center or home-based child care, including covered records stored or accessible through a secure website, to the records parents generally cannot be denied merely because of custody status.

The statute remains subject to a court’s ability to restrict access for good cause and contains separate protections concerning certain health records.

Noncustodial Does Not Mean Uninformed

This provision can be particularly useful to fathers who do not have primary physical custody. A dad should not simply shrug and accept that Mom is the sole source of information about the child’s daily life. Where the law gives you access, use it.

Know the daycare provider. Know the school. Know the child’s doctors. Know what records exist. Know what is happening in your child’s life. That kind of involvement is good parenting, and it can also be important when custody later becomes disputed.

Virginia Changed Who Can Bring a Parentage Case and Where Some Parentage Questions Can Be Decided

Virginia substantially revised part of its parentage framework for 2026. Under the amended Virginia Code § 20-49.2, proceedings may be instituted by a child, parent, person claiming parentage, person standing in loco parentis, legal custodian, or representatives of specified state agencies.

The amended statute also gives circuit courts concurrent original jurisdiction over parentage cases when a child’s parentage is at issue in another matter already before the circuit court.

Why Parentage Matters to Men

Before a man can effectively litigate some custody, visitation, or child-support issues, there may be a more basic legal question … Is he legally established as the child’s father? Virginia’s parentage statutes recognize several ways of establishing the legal relationship, including qualifying genetic testing and acknowledgments of paternity. Virginia Code § 20-49.1 sets out those rules. For unmarried fathers, assumptions can be dangerous. Biological fatherhood, legal parentage, custody rights, and support obligations can intersect, but they are not questions a man should casually treat as interchangeable.

Virginia Restricted Establishment of Parentage in Certain Sexual-Offense Cases

The 2026 version of Virginia Code § 20-49.1 contains an important provision barring establishment of a parent-child relationship in specified circumstances when conception resulted from certain sexual offenses or prohibited conduct. The statute applies when a biological parent has been convicted of enumerated offenses or has been found by clear and convincing evidence to have engaged in the specified conduct and the child was conceived as a result. The statute also contains limited exceptions involving subsequent conduct of the biological parents. These are exceptional cases, but the legal stakes are enormous because the threshold question is not merely how much parenting time someone receives. It can be whether the parent-child relationship is legally established at all.

Virginia Expanded the Grounds for Divorce From Bed and Board

One of the most notable divorce changes appears in Virginia Code § 20-95.

A divorce from bed and board may now be decreed for cruelty, reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, willful desertion, abandonment, or on either party’s application when the spouses are living separate and apart and at least one intends the separation to be permanent. The amendment further states that no waiting period is required to file a divorce from bed and board under the section, although the decree may be entered only in accordance with § 20-91.

Why Breadwinners Should Pay Attention

Timing matters in divorce. A husband who earns most of the household income may simultaneously be worrying about spousal support, child support, the mortgage, household bills, attorney’s fees, possession of the marital residence, custody and parenting time, marital debts, and preserving assets while the case is pending. Virginia courts have mechanisms for entering temporary orders while a divorce is pending. Our article on temporary orders in Virginia family-law cases explains why the period before final divorce can matter so much. Men should not assume that because the marriage has not been finally dissolved, nothing financially significant can happen. A lot can happen before the final decree.

Virginia Revised Its Absolute-Divorce Statute

Virginia’s principal grounds-for-divorce statute, Virginia Code § 20-91, was amended for 2026.

Among the changes, adultery is now expressly stated as adultery occurring before the date of the parties’ last separation. Virginia continues to recognize other statutory grounds, including specified felony-conviction circumstances, cruelty, reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, willful desertion or abandonment, and separation-based divorce.

Virginia Did Not Abolish Fault Divorce

That distinction matters. Virginia did not become a purely no-fault divorce state on July 1, 2026. If you are trying to understand how fault, separation, property, support, and divorce grounds can interact, our broader guide to divorce in Virginia provides useful background.

Men should make legal and financial decisions based on the statute in force today, not on assumptions about what divorce law may become in the future.

The Last Permanent Separation Now Has Particular Importance for Marital Debt

For breadwinners, this may be one of the most important changes in the entire 2026 package.

The amended Virginia Code § 20-107.3 provides that the court determines the amount of debt as of the date of the parties’ last separation, when at that time or afterward at least one party intends the separation to be permanent. The court also examines the extent to which the debt increased or decreased from separation through the evidentiary hearing.

A party may move for a different valuation date for good cause, but the statute generally requires the motion to be made at least 21 days before the evidentiary hearing.

Separation Dates Can Have Dollar Signs Attached to Them

Consider a husband who has historically carried most of the family’s finances.

After separation, he may still be paying the mortgage, joint credit cards, children’s expenses, family insurance, existing debt, business expenses, retirement contributions, and the costs associated with two households. At the same time, one spouse may begin incurring new debt. The amended statute makes the separation date and what happened afterward particularly important when debts are classified and valued.

For a deeper explanation of how Virginia divides assets and liabilities, see our guide to equitable distribution in Virginia.

Post-Separation Debt Can Be Separate — But There Is an Important Exception

The updated Virginia Code § 20-107.3 provides that debt incurred by either party after the last permanent separation is generally separate debt.

But the statute also provides an important exception: to the extent a party proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the debt was incurred for the benefit of the marriage or family, the court may designate it as marital debt.

Why This Matters to Breadwinners

This creates exactly the sort of dispute where records become critical. Suppose Dad incurs $15,000 in post-separation credit-card debt. What was it for? A new girlfriend and a vacation?

Or the mortgage, children’s expenses, repairs to the marital home, groceries, insurance, and other family obligations? Those are very different facts. Documentation can make the difference between an unsupported story and an argument backed by bank statements, invoices, receipts, and account records.

Higher Earners Should Take Post-Separation Spending Seriously

Virginia’s equitable-distribution statute also tells courts to consider the use or expenditure of marital property for a nonmarital separate purpose or the dissipation of marital funds in anticipation of divorce or separation or after the last separation. That makes careless financial behavior particularly dangerous during the breakdown of a marriage.

Our article on marital waste in Virginia divorce goes into this issue in greater depth.

For a breadwinner, questionable transactions may include large unexplained withdrawals, gifts, unusual transfers, spending on a romantic partner, loans to relatives, or attempts to move marital funds beyond the other spouse’s reach. Do not confuse protecting your finances with hiding or dissipating assets. They are not the same thing.

Virginia Still Uses Equitable Distribution — Not an Automatic 50/50 Split

The 2026 amendments do not change Virginia into a community-property state. Under Virginia Code § 20-107.3, courts classify property and debts and apply equitable-distribution principles rather than simply ordering every marital asset split exactly in half. That distinction is especially important to men with substantial retirement benefits, businesses, professional practices, investment accounts, real estate, deferred compensation, pensions, bonuses, stock compensation, or separate property that may have become commingled.

Our articles on whether Virginia is a community-property state and protecting property and assets during divorce provide additional background.

“Equitable” does not necessarily mean “equal.”

Some Post-Divorce Property Matters Can Be Transferred to Where an Ex-Spouse Now Lives

The 2026 amendment to Virginia Code § 20-107.3 also adds a practical venue provision.

When neither former spouse resides in the city or county of the circuit court that entered the divorce decree, the court may transfer certain continuing enforcement authority to the circuit court for the locality where either former spouse resides. That can matter after people relocate for careers, military orders, remarriage, retirement, or family reasons. Divorce may be final, but property orders, incorporated agreements, retirement provisions, and enforcement disputes can continue producing litigation afterward.

Military Members and Certain Federal Employees Received an Important Residency Clarification

Virginia is home to a huge military and federal workforce, making the 2026 change to Virginia Code § 20-97 especially significant. Virginia generally requires at least one party to satisfy the Commonwealth’s six-month bona fide residency and domicile requirement before maintaining a divorce or annulment action. The amended statute addresses Armed Forces members and civilian federal employees—including foreign service officers—who were stationed in a territory or foreign country and either remain in that circumstance as specified by the statute or have returned to Virginia after such an assignment. When the statutory conditions are met, qualifying prior Virginia residence can count toward the domicile and residency requirement.

Why This Matters in Hampton Roads

For a servicemember, where you live is often dictated by orders rather than personal choice. Divorce jurisdiction should not be an afterthought.

Our guide on filing for divorce as a military servicemember in Virginia covers the larger military-divorce picture, including the complications residency and stationing can create.

Military men may also face separate issues involving military retirement, Survivor Benefit Plan coverage, deployment, PCS orders, custody, Basic Allowance for Housing, military and special pay, disability-related benefits, and division of military retired pay. If military compensation is also relevant to support, see our guide to what types of military pay may count toward child support in Virginia.

Family-Abuse Protective Orders Can Now Include Temporary Child Support

One of the clearest new financial consequences for breadwinners appears in Virginia Code § 16.1-279.1. When the court issues a family-abuse protective order under that section, it may now also enter a temporary child-support order for children of the petitioner whom the respondent has a legal obligation to support. The temporary child-support order ends when support is determined under § 20-108.1 or when the protective order terminates, whichever happens first.

A Protective-Order Case Can Affect Your Family and Your Paycheck

Men sometimes make the mistake of assuming a protective-order proceeding is separate from the “real” divorce or custody case. That is dangerous thinking. A protective-order case can have immediate consequences. Now the financial consequences can expressly include temporary child support as well.

If you have been served, our guide to protective orders in Virginia provides useful background. If an order has already been entered, understand that violating a protective order can create an entirely new set of legal problems. Read every provision. Follow the order. And get legal advice before deciding how to respond.

Protective Orders Can Reach the Home, Utilities, Phones, Vehicles, Housing, and Children

The current Virginia Code § 16.1-279.1 gives courts substantial authority when entering a family-abuse protective order.

Depending on the circumstances, relief can concern possession of the residence, contribution toward rent or mortgage, utilities, cellular phone numbers and electronic devices, electronic location tracking or surveillance, temporary use of a motor vehicle, vehicle insurance, registration and taxes, alternative housing, and temporary custody or visitation. Some of these powers predate the particular 2026 child-support amendment, so they should not all be confused with newly created authority. But they are important context for understanding why the new temporary-child-support provision matters so much.

A single protective-order proceeding can potentially touch your children, your home, your transportation, your communications, and now your immediate support obligation.

What Do the 2026 Changes Mean for Virginia Child Support?

The 2026 legislation did not replace Virginia’s basic child-support system with a brand-new formula. But several of the changes can indirectly affect support.

Custody and parenting arrangements matter because the amount of parenting time can affect support calculations in some cases. Parentage determines whether a legal support obligation exists. And the new protective-order provision gives courts authority to impose temporary child support in that proceeding.

For a broader explanation of how support works, see our Virginia child support guide and FAQ.

Men with variable or unusually structured compensation should be particularly careful. Bonuses, commissions, military pay, self-employment income, overtime, and other compensation can make support cases more complicated than simply looking at one W-2.

Breadwinners Should Also Consider Spousal Support Exposure

Although the changes discussed here do not create a new Virginia spousal-support formula, divorce procedure and financial timing can still have substantial implications for higher earners. A husband who earns significantly more than his spouse may confront claims involving both child support and spousal support while simultaneously paying marital expenses and funding a separate household.

Our guide to calculating spousal support in Virginia explains some of the principles and formulas that may become relevant.

Being the breadwinner does not mean you should panic. It means you should know your numbers before you negotiate.

Do the New Virginia Laws Give Fathers Automatic 50/50 Custody?

No. This deserves repeating because “parenting time” is easy to misread as a substantive equal-custody reform. The amended Virginia Code § 20-124.2 still states that there is no presumption in favor of any form of custody and no legal presumption or inference in favor of either parent. The best interests of the child remain the controlling consideration.

So if a father wants equal or substantial physical custody, he should prepare to demonstrate why that arrangement works for his children.

That means more than telling a judge, “I love my kids.”

It means showing the court how you parent them.

Does Being the Breadwinner Mean You Automatically Lose Half of Everything?

No. Virginia’s equitable-distribution law does not say the higher earner automatically hands over half of every asset. The court must classify assets and debts and then apply the statutory framework. But breadwinners often have more financial moving parts to identify, trace, value, and defend. That can include businesses, investment portfolios, retirement plans, pensions, stock options, restricted stock, deferred compensation, rental real estate, professional practices, bonuses and commissions, separate premarital property, and inherited assets. If you spent years building wealth, waiting until the week before trial to figure out what you own is a poor strategy.

What Should Virginia Men Do Before Announcing a Divorce?

A common mistake is making the emotional decision first and the legal plan second.

A husband announces he wants a divorce. Then accounts change. Documents become harder to find. Communication deteriorates. Children become involved in the conflict. Accusations begin. Money moves. And only afterward does he try to understand Virginia family law. If divorce is realistically on the horizon, preparation should come before unnecessary confrontation.

That does not mean hiding assets, transferring money to relatives, emptying accounts, destroying records, or manipulating the children. It means understanding your situation. Before filing or making major decisions, a breadwinner should generally know what he earns, what his spouse earns, what the family owns, what the family owes, what was separate property, what debts exist at separation, where important records are stored, what retirement and employment benefits exist, and what maintaining two households could realistically cost.

A father should also know what parenting arrangement he actually wants and whether his existing involvement with the children supports it.

If you are deciding whether timing matters, read our discussion of whether a husband should file for divorce first.

What Should Virginia Fathers Do Differently After July 1, 2026?

The new laws do not replace strategy.

They make strategy more important.

A father facing a custody dispute should consider documenting his parenting involvement, maintaining appropriate communications, obtaining records he is legally entitled to see, understanding the possibility of a custody or psychological evaluation, knowing what a custody order says about school pickup, distinguishing lawful substance use from unsafe parenting behavior, and understanding that “parenting time” does not mean automatic equal custody.

A breadwinner contemplating divorce should pay particular attention to the date of the last permanent separation, debts existing at that date, debts incurred afterward, preservation of account statements, post-separation spending, temporary support exposure, property classification, and avoiding financial transactions that could later be portrayed as dissipation.

Military and federal employees returning from overseas should determine whether the amended residency provisions affect their ability to file in Virginia.

And any man facing a family-abuse protective order should understand that the case may now have an immediate temporary-child-support component.

The 2026 Virginia Family Law Changes Do Not Protect Men Automatically

A statute does not walk into court and argue your case.

Evidence matters. Deadlines matter. Credibility matters. Records matter. Your parenting history matters. The separation date matters. What you text matters. What you spend matters. And what you do while a marriage is falling apart can matter long after the emotions of that moment have passed. For fathers, the objective should be to demonstrate through consistent conduct that you are a capable, reliable, involved parent. For breadwinners, the objective should be to protect what years of work produced through accurate records, sound planning, and disciplined financial decisions—not panic. For both, the best time to understand Virginia family law is before making a decision that may affect the next decade of your life.

Virginia Divorce and Family Law Representation for Men

Divorce is not simply the end of a marriage. For a father, it can determine how much of his children’s childhood he gets to experience. For a breadwinner, it can determine what happens to income, savings, retirement accounts, property, business interests, debts, and future support obligations.Often, it determines both at once.

The family law and divorce attorneys at The Firm For Men focus on representing men and fathers in Virginia family-law matters.

If you are considering divorce, facing a custody dispute, dealing with child support, responding to a protective order, establishing parentage, or trying to protect substantial assets, the July 1, 2026 changes may affect the strategy available to you.

Before accepting a custody arrangement, agreeing on a separation date, leaving the marital home, signing a property agreement, or making major financial decisions during separation, understand the consequences.

Talk with The Firm For Men about your situation and your options under Virginia’s 2026 family laws.

Frequently Asked Questions About the 2026 Virginia Family Law Changes

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No. Virginia now expressly allows courts to use “parenting time” as synonymous with visitation when referring to a parent, but Virginia Code § 20-124.2 still provides that there is no presumption in favor of any form of custody.

Yes. The 2026 amendment to Virginia Code § 20-124.2 expressly authorizes custody evaluations and independent mental-health or psychological evaluations when custody or visitation is at issue.

Not under the amended statutory language. Virginia Code § 20-124.2 provides that lawful possession or consumption of covered substances alone is not a basis for restricting custody or visitation unless additional facts establish that it is contrary to the child’s best interests.

The amended Virginia Code § 20-124.6 expressly covers records of child day centers and home-based child care, including covered records accessible through secure websites. A parent generally cannot be denied those records merely because of custody status, subject to the statute’s exceptions and court orders.

In specified cases involving convictions for serious offenses, yes. Virginia Code § 20-124.2 allows qualifying filing restrictions of up to 10 years when the statutory requirements are satisfied and the restriction is in the child’s best interests.

No. Virginia Code § 20-91 continues to contain fault-based grounds for divorce as well as separation-based divorce provisions.

The amended Virginia Code § 20-95 states that no waiting period is required for filing a divorce from bed and board under that section, although entry of the decree remains governed by § 20-91.

The amended Virginia Code § 20-107.3 directs the court to determine debt amounts as of the parties’ last permanent separation and consider changes in those debts through the evidentiary hearing. The statute also distinguishes, subject to exceptions, between debt incurred before and after the last permanent separation.

Yes. The amended Virginia Code § 16.1-279.1 allows a court issuing a qualifying family-abuse protective order to enter temporary child support for children whom the respondent has a legal obligation to support.

Yes. The amended Virginia Code § 20-97 contains a new provision affecting qualifying members of the Armed Forces and federal civilian employees, including foreign service officers, who were stationed overseas and satisfy the statute’s Virginia-residence conditions.

Understand the finances before changing them. Preserve records. Identify assets and debts. Document the separation date. Know your parenting history. Learn what custody arrangement you want. Do not hide assets, destroy records, violate court orders, interfere with the children’s relationship with their mother, or make large unexplained financial moves because divorce appears likely. Preparation is not misconduct. It is understanding your position before making decisions with long-term consequences.

This article provides general information about Virginia law and is not legal advice. Every case is different, laws and interpretations can change, and you should consult a qualified Virginia attorney about your specific circumstances.