§ 8.01-184.Power to issue declaratory judgments.

Section 8.01-184 establishes Virginia’s declaratory judgment power. Circuit courts, acting within the scope of their ordinary jurisdiction, may make binding adjudications of right in cases of actual controversy. That authority does not depend on whether the party seeking the declaration is also asking for consequential relief — an injunction, damages, or some other further remedy — either now or at some earlier point when the suit could have included it. A case is not open to objection merely because what is sought is a judgment order or decree that does no more than declare a right.

The section lists examples without limiting the reach of the remedy: controversies over the interpretation of deeds, wills, and other written instruments, along with statutes, municipal ordinances, and other governmental regulations, can all be resolved through a declaratory judgment. But that list is illustrative, not exhaustive — the statute states that the enumeration does not exclude other instances of actual, antagonistic assertion and denial of right.

The core requirement running through the whole section is an actual controversy: a real, live dispute between parties with adverse interests, not a hypothetical question or a request for legal advice dressed up as a lawsuit. Within that boundary, Section 8.01-184 gives Virginia litigants a flexible tool to get a court’s binding word on where they stand before taking action, rather than having to act first and defend the consequences later.