The notice bureau: Virginia
Legal notices in Virginia: rules, rates, deadlines
Qualifying papers, the statutory rate basis, run schedules, and booking, from the state's own rules.
Statutory basis: Va. Code sec. 8.01-324
The controlling law for Virginia newspaper notices. Read the current text at the official source before filing; legislatures amend these sections, and the statute outranks every guide, including this one.
Source: Va. Code sec. 8.01-324 (official text), retrieved Jul 31, 2026.
Which papers qualify
Virginia Code section 8.01-324 sets the criteria a newspaper must meet to carry legal notices and authorizes courts to order publication in qualifying papers. The Virginia Press Association aggregates notices at publicnoticevirginia.com.
Source: publicnoticevirginia.com, retrieved Jul 31, 2026. The state's official notice aggregation and verification point.
What it costs: the rate basis
Virginia papers set their own legal advertising rates, quoted per notice from your text length. The statute governs qualification, not price, so ask the legal desk for the line rate and computed total, and compare a second qualifying paper in the same locality where one exists.
| Notice type | Schedule |
|---|---|
| Court-ordered publication (divorce, service by publication, name changes) | As the order directs, commonly weekly for the number of weeks the order states |
| Government and trustee notices | As the authorizing statute directs; trustee sale ads follow the deed of trust and code requirements |
Source: Va. Code sec. 8.01-324, retrieved Jul 31, 2026. Schedules stated by the code section or order governing each notice type.
Booking before the deadline
Take the court order or statutory citation to the qualifying paper's legal desk, book all required weeks against the hearing or sale date, and route the certification the way the court requires.
The local wrinkle
The order is the spec sheet
Virginia courts write the publication requirement into the order itself. Bring the order text to the desk rather than paraphrasing it; desks price and schedule from the order's exact words, and a mismatch is the common cause of rejected proofs.
Notice cost and deadline desk
Enter the paper’s legal per-line rate for a cost figure. Rates are set by each paper or by statute; this desk never guesses one.
Add your court or sale date and the desk counts the weeks back to your last safe first-run date.
Deadline arithmetic only; the statute or court order for your notice type controls the real schedule. State rules and citations are on the state pages below.
Neighboring bureaus: North Carolina and Pennsylvania. All states and the general workflow: the notice bureau. Commercial deadline mechanics: the deadline page.