Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any party in any civil action may inform the jury of the amount of damages sought by the plaintiff in the opening statement or closing argument, or both. The plaintiff may request an amount which is less than the ad damnum in the motion for judgment.
Va. Code Ann. § 8.01-379.1
Informing jury of amounts sued for
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Paul v. Gomez (2000)
Most recently applied in Wright v. Eli Lilly & Co. (September 2004)
1988, c. 321; 1993, c. 615.
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.