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<law><site_title>Virginia Decoded</site_title><site_url>https://vacode.org</site_url><law_id>72405</law_id><section_number>17.1-114</section_number><catch_line>When and how changed</catch_line><edition url="https://vacode.org/2025/" slug="2025" current="TRUE" last_updated="">2025</edition><referred_to_by><reference>17.1-115</reference></referred_to_by><structure><unit label="title" level="1" order_by="1" identifier="17.1">Courts of Record</unit><unit label="chapter" level="2" order_by="1" identifier="1">General Provisions</unit></structure><text>
						<section><p>Whenever in the <span class="dictionary">opinion</span> of a <span class="dictionary">circuit</span> <span class="dictionary">court</span> or the <span class="dictionary">judge</span> thereof, the courthouse or other place wherein it is required to hold its session cannot or should not for any reason be occupied by it, or if the same has been destroyed, or is being repaired, renovated, or enlarged, the <span class="dictionary">court</span> may hold its session at such places within the geographical limits of the same judicial <span class="dictionary">circuit</span> as the <span class="dictionary">court</span> may direct by an <span class="dictionary">order</span> to its clerk. The <span class="dictionary">court</span> shall continue to hold its sessions in such other place until the courthouse or its lawful place of session can be occupied, or until another has been built and fitted for the <span class="dictionary">court</span>&#x2019;s occupation, or until such repairs, renovations or additions have been completed, or until some other place is designated by the <span class="dictionary">court</span>. Except as provided in subsection C of &#xA7;&#xA0;<a class="law" title="Declaration of judicial emergency" href="/17.1-330/">17.1-330</a> or this section or as agreed to by all parties to an action, no session of a <span class="dictionary">circuit</span> <span class="dictionary">court</span> shall be held outside the geographical limits of the county or city of which it is the <span class="dictionary">court</span>.
		In the interest of justice, the <span class="dictionary">chief judges</span> of the Twenty-first and the Twenty-third Judicial <span class="dictionary">Circuits</span> may, by <span class="dictionary">order</span>, designate one or more of the courtrooms of any <span class="dictionary">circuit</span> <span class="dictionary">court</span> within their respective <span class="dictionary">circuits</span> as the courtroom or courtrooms in which civil or criminal cases whose <span class="dictionary">venue</span> is laid within the <span class="dictionary">circuit</span> may be tried. In criminal cases, jurors summoned to appear at such courtroom or courtrooms shall reside in the locality in which the <span class="dictionary">crime</span> was committed, except as otherwise provided by <span class="dictionary">law</span>.</p></section></text><history>Code 1919, &#xA7; 5965, &#xA7;&#xA7; 17-15, 17-18; 1962, c. 405; 1966, c. 348; 1971, Ex. Sess., c. 156; 1998, c. 872; 2005, c. 389; 2010, cc. 451, 757.</history><metadata></metadata></law>
