Virginia Wiretapping, Eavesdropping and Disclosure of Communications Statute

It is a Class 6 felony to intentionally intercept, or procure another person to intercept, a wire, electronic or oral communication, or to intentionally disclose or use its contents knowing or having reason to know they were obtained through interception. It is not a criminal offense for a person to intercept a communication where that person is a party to it or one of the parties has given prior consent, so one party's consent is enough and a business may record its own calls.

An oral communication is protected only where the speaker exhibits an expectation that it is not subject to interception under circumstances justifying that expectation. An electronic communication does not include a communication through a tone-only paging device, a communication from a device that tracks the movement of a person or object, or electronic funds transfer information a financial institution stores.

To intercept is to acquire the contents through an electronic, mechanical or other device, a term that excludes telephone equipment furnished by a provider, or by the subscriber for connection to the service, and used in the ordinary course of the subscriber's or user's business.

It is also not an offense to intercept an electronic communication made through a system configured so that it is readily accessible to the general public, to intercept several categories of radio communication, to use a pen register or trap and trace device as sections 19.2-70.1 and 19.2-70.2 allow, or for a provider of electronic communication service to record that a communication was initiated or completed to protect itself, another provider or a user from fraudulent, unlawful or abusive use of the service.

A person or entity providing an electronic communication service to the public must not intentionally divulge the contents of a communication while in transmission on its service to anyone other than an addressee, an intended recipient, or their agent.

It may divulge them as the chapter's provider-employee exception or section 19.2-67 allows, with the lawful consent of the originator or an addressee or intended recipient, to a person who forwards the communication to its destination, or, where the contents were inadvertently obtained and appear to pertain to a crime, to a law-enforcement agency. Violating the provider-divulgence duty is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Anyone whose communication is intercepted, disclosed or used in violation of the chapter has a civil action for actual damages but not less than liquidated damages of $400 a day of violation or $4,000, whichever is higher, doubled to $800 a day or $8,000 for a communication between spouses, an attorney and client, a licensed practitioner of the healing arts and patient, a licensed professional counselor, clinical social worker, psychologist or marriage and family therapist and client, or a clergy member and a person seeking spiritual counsel, plus punitive damages and a reasonable attorney fee and litigation costs.