Virginia’s civil justice system currently does not allow class action lawsuits, a safeguard that protects consumers and small businesses from potentially abusive litigation. This approach helps ensure lawsuits are based on real harm to real people—not technical violations designed to generate massive paydays for attorneys. Preserving Virginia’s class action ban promotes fairness, keeps costs down for consumers, and prevents the legal system from being exploited.

S.B. 229/H.B.449 (2026) would open the floodgates for abusive class action lawsuits that would harm Virginia consumers and small businesses. The bills allow for stacked penalties for technical violations, apply new rules to past conduct, and weaken Virginia’s long-standing consumer protection standards. These changes would encourage lawsuits that benefit trial lawyers more than consumers, drive up the costs of goods and services, and threaten Virginia’s reputation for having a fair and predictable civil justice system.