§ 8.01-401.3.Opinion testimony and conclusions as to facts critical to civil case resolution (Supreme Court Rule 2:701 derived from subsection B of this section, subdivision (a)(i) of Supreme Court Rule 2:702 derived from subsection A of this section, and subsection (a) of Supreme Court Rule 2:704 derived from subsections B and C of this section).

Courts once worried that letting a witness state an opinion on the exact question the jury had to decide would improperly hand that decision to the witness. Section 8.01-401.3 abandons that worry as a categorical rule. It allows an expert or lay witness testifying in a civil proceeding to express an opinion or conclusion on a matter of fact even though that fact happens to be the ultimate issue, or a fact critical to resolving the case.

The permission comes with one firm boundary: no witness, expert or lay, may testify to an opinion that amounts to a conclusion of law. A witness can say what happened and what it means as a matter of fact, but cannot tell the jury how to apply the law to reach a verdict.

Also worth knowing: qualifying under this section still requires the opinion to be “otherwise admissible” under the rest of Virginia’s evidence law — this section removes the ultimate-issue objection specifically, not every other basis for excluding an opinion. And it preserves history: whatever exceptions to the old ultimate-fact rule Virginia courts had already recognized before this statute’s enactment remain in force alongside the new rule.