§ 8.01-543.Issue of other attachments on original petition.

A plaintiff who wins an initial attachment often discovers more assets, or more debtors holding the principal defendant’s property, after the fact. This section lets him chase those down without starting over: on his written application, the clerk of the court where the original attachment is pending can issue further attachments founded on the same original petition, directed, executed, and returned the same way as the first one.

That streamlined path has two exceptions. The clerk cannot issue a follow-on attachment on his own if the plaintiff is relying on new or additional grounds beyond what the original petition alleged, or if the target is a ship, boat, or vessel over twenty tons. In either case, the matter has to go back before a judge or magistrate: the plaintiff amends the petition under Rule of Court 1:8 and swears to the amended version, and the judge or magistrate applies the same reasonable-cause and compliance review used for the original attachment under §§ 8.01-534 and 8.01-537, and § 8.01-538 for large vessels.

The section even supplies a model form for requesting an additional attachment, and it leaves the costs of these follow-on attachments to the court’s judgment, a practical nod to how often attachment litigation unfolds in stages as a plaintiff locates more of a debtor’s property.