§ 8.01-277.1.Objections to personal jurisdiction or defective process; what constitutes waiver.

Section 8.01-277.1 draws a clearer line than the old case-law tests around what activity in a lawsuit gives up an objection to personal jurisdiction or defective process. Subsection A lists conduct related to adjudicating the merits that waives the objection: filing a demurrer, plea in bar, answer, counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim; conducting discovery, except as subsection B allows; seeking a ruling on the merits; or actively participating in proceedings aimed at determining the merits. None of that list is exhaustive, the section frames it as “including, but not limited to.”

Subsection B carves out conduct that does not waive the objection, because it is unrelated to adjudicating the merits: requesting or agreeing to an extension of time, agreeing to a scheduling order, conducting discovery the court authorized specifically to adjudicate the objection itself, observing or attending proceedings, filing a motion to transfer venue under § 8.01-264 when it is filed at the same time as the objection, or removing the case to federal court. The whole section is expressly subject to § 8.01-277, the motion-to-quash and untimely-service provisions get their own rules for what counts as waiver.