8.01-400 - Communications between ministers of religion and persons they counsel or advise. - Virginia Statutes

§ 8.01-400. Communications between ministers of religion and persons theycounsel or advise.

No regular minister, priest, rabbi, or accredited practitioner over the ageof eighteen years, of any religious organization or denomination usuallyreferred to as a church, shall be required to give testimony as a witness orto relinquish notes, records or any written documentation made by suchperson, or disclose the contents of any such notes, records or writtendocumentation, in discovery proceedings in any civil action which woulddisclose any information communicated to him in a confidential manner,properly entrusted to him in his professional capacity and necessary toenable him to discharge the functions of his office according to the usualcourse of his practice or discipline, wherein such person so communicatingsuch information about himself or another is seeking spiritual counsel andadvice relative to and growing out of the information so imparted.

(Code 1950, § 8-289.2; 1962, c. 466; 1977, c. 617; 1979, c. 3; 1994, c. 198.)