§ 8.01-575.Rehearing permitted when judgment rendered on publication.

Judgment by publication — notice given through a newspaper rather than direct service — lets a case move forward against a defendant who cannot be found, but it also carries an obvious risk: the defendant may never learn about the case in time to respond. This section gives that defendant, or the defendant’s personal representative if the defendant has died, a path back into the case. If the defendant returns to or openly appears in Virginia, a petition to rehear the proceedings can be filed within one year after being served with a copy of the judgment at the plaintiff’s request, or within two years of the judgment’s date if never served that copy at all.

Getting back in requires posting security for costs, but once that is done, the defendant is admitted to defend against the judgment just as though the case had never been decided in the first place. There is one important exception: the title of a bona fide purchaser who bought property sold under the attachment cannot be questioned or unwound, even if the rehearing otherwise succeeds. And this whole rehearing avenue is unavailable to a defendant, or that defendant’s decedent, who was served with a copy of the attachment more than ten days before judgment, or who already appeared and defended the case.