§ 8.01-353.Notice to jurors; making copy of jury panel available to counsel; objection to notice.

Getting a juror into the courtroom starts with notice, and this section covers both the ordinary and the informal ways that happens. The sheriff notifies jurors on the list to appear as the judge directs, following the notice procedure in § 8.01-298, but a judge’s verbal instruction telling a juror to come back on a later date counts as sufficient notice too, carrying the same force as a court order — with no fixed lead time required, though the court can excuse a juror who claims they did not get enough warning.

Counsel get their own guarantee here: on request, the clerk, sheriff, or other responsible officer must give all counsel of record a copy of the jury panel — names, ages, addresses, occupations, and employers — at least five full business days before trial. Mistakes on that copy are not grounds for a mistrial or an appeal; the parties bear responsibility for checking the details themselves.

The section also protects verdicts from being undone over paperwork gaps. A judgment will not be arrested or reversed just because the record fails to show a juror was served with notice, unless that failure was raised as an exception before the jury was sworn.