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Va. Code Ann. § 19.2-128

Penalties for failure to appear

Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case Jaffe v. Accredited Surety & Casualty Co. (2002)

Most recently applied in 69 Va. App. 149 - Andy Chavez v. Commonwealth of Virginia (August 2018)

Code 1950, § 19.1-109.7; 1973, c. 485; 1975, c. 495; 1981, c. 382; 1982, c. 271; 1999, c. 821; 2024, c. 109.

How often courts cite this section

199320002010201810
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

A. Whoever, having been released pursuant to this chapter or § 19.2-319 or on a summons pursuant to § 19.2-73 or 19.2-74, willfully fails to appear before any court or judicial officer as required, shall, after notice to all interested parties, incur a forfeiture of any security that may have been given or pledged for his release, unless one of the parties can show good cause for excusing the absence, or unless the court, in its sound discretion, shall determine that neither the interests of justice nor the power of the court to conduct orderly proceedings will be served by such forfeiture.

B. Any person (i) charged with a felony offense or (ii) convicted of a felony offense and execution of sentence is suspended pursuant to § 19.2-319 who willfully fails to appear before any court as required is guilty of a Class 6 felony.

C. Any person (i) charged with a misdemeanor offense or (ii) convicted of a misdemeanor offense and execution of sentence is suspended pursuant to § 19.2-319 who willfully fails to appear before any court as required is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

D. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any person who is (i) incarcerated in any correctional facility or (ii) (a) detained in any state or federal facility or (b) in the custody of a law-enforcement officer at the time such person is required to appear before any court or judicial officer.

Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.