Any person who practices law without being authorized or licensed shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. A collection agency may refer debts to an attorney for collection with the creditor's approval of the referral and the fee arrangement and shall not be deemed to be engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. An attorney is permitted by the creditor's authorization to enter into such representation agreements.
Va. Code Ann. § 54.1-3904
Penalty for practicing without authority
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Attorney Grievance Commission v. Velasquez (2004)
Most recently applied in Landes v. CAVALRY PORTFOLIO SERVICES, LLC (March 2011)
Code 1950, § 54-44; 1988, c. 765; 1994, c. 441.
How often courts cite this section
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.
Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.