Civil Process and Enforcement

An inquiry of your computer system indicates the Sheriff has not received any process for the individual in question. Territorial jurisdiction is very important here. The process will be served by the Sheriff where the person resides, regardless of which court issued the process. Let's say the person being served lived in Charlottesville but the Fluvanna court issued the process, the plaintiff would call the Charlottesville Sheriff's Office to inquire about service.

If it is a Warrant for Arrest in a criminal matter, the Sheriff’s Office would handle that service. The Sheriff would also serve a civil Capias, usually for failure to appear in court or obey the court's directives. In either case, the sheriff will not provide this information over the phone. If you believe there is an outstanding warrant for your arrest, it is better to go to the Sheriff's Office to inquire.

Obtaining judgment and enforcing judgments are two different actions. While the plaintiff may have won his case in court, it is up to the plaintiff to pursue collection remedies. The method of collection will vary according to each case and the assets and information available. One method of collecting your money is through the Writ of Fieri Facias process also known as the Writ of FiFa. We refer to this as the levy process. The Writ of FiFa authorizes the Sheriff to levy (inventory) property owned by the judgment debtor which is later sold at public auction to recover the debt. This is a time consuming and sometimes costly process. If you know where the debtor works or where his bank account is located, you may ask the clerk of the court where you obtained judgment to issue a Garnishment Summons. This requires the third party debtor (employer or lending institution) to pay the money owed to the court who will later disburse to the plaintiff.

From time to time DCSE updates their files. They use the Sheriff's services for notification because it is free. If you have questions about your payments, or notice a discrepancy in the amount of payments, you should contact your local DSCE office for correction.

Filing of bankruptcy protects the debtor from any creditor process, i.e., collection of debts. However, the court would not have any knowledge that a debtor filed bankruptcy. This is why it is important to appear or notify the court that bankruptcy has been filed. Once a show cause has been issued for failure to appear, the process now becomes a criminal matter (contempt of court) and the deputy must serve the process, unless the court recalls the order. If the debtor fails to appear on the show cause, a capias for the defendant's arrest will be issued. This could be avoided by taking care of the problem in the beginning.

If the process indicates the debtor does not have to appear in court, the debtor may elect to pay the debt and forego going to court. However, the debtor takes a risk in doing so. If for some reason the payment gets lost and debtor fails to appear in court, judgment will be obtained by default. It is more difficult to reverse a judgment than it is to simply appear in court to ensure the debtor's rights are protected. For this reason, all deputies will encourage a person to appear in court when requested to do so.

Filing of bankruptcy stops all civil actions against the tenant. This includes the eviction process because the debtor's estate, personal or real, is protected by the bankruptcy court. In order for the landlord to go forward with the eviction, he must obtain from the bankruptcy court, an order granting relief from stay. Without this, the Sheriff will not evict.

It is important to understand that the Sheriff is not the only person who serves processes. Private process servers are also permitted to serve process. However, if you should find a process on your door for someone who doesn't live there, regardless of who may have served it, call our office at 589-8211 and we may send a deputy to pick it up. When calling us we will need some information, such as who you are, the address where the process was left, if you are related to the person to be served, if there is any forwarding address or phone number, and how long ago the person moved away.

Unless there is a specifically worded order in the Sheriff's hands directing him to take custody of a child, he will not. Any custody order obtained in another state other than Virginia is not recognized here and must be filed with a Virginia Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court to ensure the foreign order complies with Virginia law.