§ 8.01-273.1.Motion for judgment; motion to refer; Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Act.

Section 8.01-273.1 connects an ordinary civil action to Virginia’s specialized no-fault compensation system for certain birth injuries. Subsection A lets a party who is a participating hospital or physician, as defined in § 38.2-5001, move to refer the cause of action to the Workers’ Compensation Commission, so the Commission can decide whether the case satisfies the Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Act. That motion must be filed no later than 120 days after the moving party’s grounds of defense was filed. Once the motion goes in, the court forwards it and a copy of the motion for judgment to the Commission and stays all proceedings on the underlying cause of action until the Commission notifies the court of its decision.

Subsection B lays out what happens next procedurally. After the court enters the referral order, the circuit court clerk has thirty days to file a copy of the motion for judgment and the parties’ responsive pleadings with the Commission, copying all counsel of record on the transmittal letter. Every party to the civil action can then participate before the Commission by filing a notice of appearance with the Commission’s clerk within twenty-one days of receiving that transmittal letter. The moving party has to supply the Commission with an original and five copies of the relevant assessments, evaluations, prognoses, and other discovery records reasonably necessary to determine whether the infant suffered a birth-related neurological injury, records that, together with the pleadings, function as the petition referenced in § 38.2-5004, and gets reimbursed for the copying costs once an award of benefits under § 38.2-5009 is entered.