§ 8.01-195.4.Jurisdiction of claims under this article; right to jury trial; service on Commonwealth or locality; amending amount of claim.

Section 8.01-195.4 splits jurisdiction over Tort Claims Act suits by dollar amount. General district courts have exclusive original jurisdiction over claims of $4,500 or less. Jurisdiction is concurrent between the general district and circuit courts for claims above $4,500 but not exceeding $50,000. Claims above $50,000 belong exclusively to the circuit courts, and any party in a circuit court action is entitled to a jury trial.

The section also lets a plaintiff amend the amount claimed while a case is pending, without dismissing the suit or taking a nonsuit first. On the plaintiff’s motion, the court transfers the case to whichever court — general district or circuit — has jurisdiction over the amended amount, and the tolling of the statute of limitations continues uninterrupted through the transfer. If the new amount falls in the range where the two courts share concurrent jurisdiction, the plaintiff chooses the destination court. Except for good cause, the motion to amend and transfer must come at least ten days before trial. The plaintiff pays the transfer fees, the receiving clerk treats the case as a new civil action, and the plaintiff is responsible for presenting the transfer order to the transferring court and delivering a certified copy to the receiving court.

Service works differently depending on the defendant. In a suit against the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth is the proper defendant and service of process goes to the Attorney General, while the separate notice of claim required by Section 8.01-195.6 goes to the Director of the Division of Risk Management or the Attorney General. In a suit against a transportation district, the district is the proper defendant and both process and notices go to the chairman of the district’s commission.