From any order entered or judgment rendered in a court not of record in a civil case in which the matter in controversy is of greater value than $20, exclusive of interest, any attorney fees contracted for in the instrument, and costs, or when the case involves the constitutionality or validity of a statute of the Commonwealth, or of an ordinance or bylaw of a municipal corporation, or of the enforcement of rights and privileges conferred by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (§ 2.2-3700 et seq.), or of a protective order pursuant to § 19.2-152.10, or of an action filed by a condominium unit owners' association or unit owner pursuant to § 55-79.80:2, or of an action filed by a property owners' association or lot owner pursuant to § 55-513, there shall be an appeal of right, if taken within 10 days after such order or judgment, to a court of record. Such appeal shall be to a court of record having jurisdiction within the territory of the court from which the appeal is taken and shall be heard de novo.

The court from which an appeal is sought may refuse to suspend the execution of a judgment that refuses, grants, modifies, or dissolves an injunction in a case brought pursuant to § 2.2-3713 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. A protective order issued pursuant to § 19.2-152.10, including a protective order required by § 18.2-60.4, shall remain in effect upon petition for or the pendency of an appeal or writ of error unless ordered suspended by the judge of a circuit court or so directed in a writ of supersedeas by the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.

1956, c. 555; 1977, c. 624; 1990, c. 217; 1997, c. 831; 2009, c. 729; 2013, cc. 73, 97; 2014, c. 784; 2015, c. 714.