§ 8.01-15.1.Anonymous plaintiff; motion for identification; factors to be considered by court.

Subsection A gives any party the right to move for an order addressing whether anonymous participation in a proceeding commenced under a pseudonym is proper. The trial court may allow the case to continue under a pseudonym if the anonymous litigant carries the burden of showing special circumstances — circumstances where the need for anonymity outweighs both the public’s interest in knowing the party’s identity and any prejudice to other parties. The court weighs several factors in making that call: whether the anonymity is meant only to avoid the annoyance and criticism litigation can bring, or instead to preserve privacy in a sensitive and highly personal matter; whether identification risks retaliatory physical or mental harm to the requesting party or to innocent nonparties; the ages of the people whose privacy is at stake; whether the suit is against a governmental or a private party; and the risk of unfairness to other parties if anonymity continues.

Anonymity granted at the outset is not permanent by default. Subsection B allows the propriety of continued anonymous participation to be raised again at any stage of the litigation when circumstances warrant reconsidering it. And even while anonymity is in place, all parties retain the right to know the true identities of every other party, subject to whatever confidentiality provisions the court considers appropriate.

If the court later orders the anonymous litigant identified, subsection C requires the pleadings and any relevant dockets to be reformed to show the party’s true name, with that identification deemed to relate back to the date the anonymous party originally filed the proceeding. And subsection D makes clear that proceeding anonymously does not shrink a party’s procedural entitlements: the court must enter whatever orders are needed to afford every party the rights, procedures, and discovery to which they are otherwise entitled.