Fees in civil cases for services performed by the judges or clerks of general district courts or magistrates in the event any such services are performed by magistrates in civil cases shall be as provided in this section, and, unless otherwise provided, shall be included in the taxed costs and shall not be refundable, except in case of error or as herein provided.

Terms Used In Virginia Code 16.1-69.48:2

  • Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
  • City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
  • Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
  • Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
  • Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
  • Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254

For all court and magistrate services in each distress, detinue, interrogatory summons, unlawful detainer, civil warrant, notice of motion, garnishment, attachment issued, or other civil proceeding, the fee shall be $36. No such fee shall be collected (i) in any tax case instituted by any county, city or town or (ii) in any case instituted by a school board for collection of overdue book rental fees. Of the fees collected under this section, $10 of each such fee collected shall be apportioned to the Courts Technology Fund established under § 17.1-132.

The judge or clerk shall collect the foregoing fee at the time of issuing process. Any magistrate or other issuing officer shall collect the foregoing fee at the time of issuing process, and shall remit the entire fee promptly to the court to which such process is returnable, or to its clerk. When no service of process is had on a defendant named in any civil process other than a notice of motion for judgment, such process may be reissued once by the court or clerk at the court’s direction by changing the return day of such process, for which service by the court or clerk there shall be no charge; however, reissuance of such process shall be within three months after the original return day.

The clerk of any district court may charge a fee for making a copy of any paper of record to go out of his office which is not otherwise specifically provided for. The amount of this fee shall be set in the discretion of the clerk but shall not exceed $1 for the first two pages and $.50 for each page thereafter.

The fees prescribed in this section shall be the only fees charged in civil cases for services performed by such judges and clerks, and when the services referred to herein are performed by magistrates such fees shall be the only fees charged by such magistrates for the prescribed services.

Code 1950, § 14-133; 1954, c. 287; 1956, c. 556; 1958, c. 555; 1960, cc. 17, 106; 1964, c. 386, § 14.1-125; 1970, c. 569; 1971, Ex. Sess., cc. 155, 253; 1973, c. 545; 1975, c. 591; 1982, c. 569; 1983, c. 499; 1984, cc. 293, 702; 1990, c. 943; 1991, c. 577; 1992, c. 555; 1997, c. 42; 1998, c. 872; 2003, c. 1039; 2006, cc. 623, 718; 2010, c. 874; 2011, c. 890; 2020, c. 1289; 2020, Sp. Sess. I, c. 56; 2022, Sp. Sess. I, c. 1.

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