Virginia Whistleblower Law: Protections, Deadlines, and Remedies

Virginia whistleblower law comes from three separate statutes: Va. Code § 40.1-27.3 protects private- and public-sector employees who report legal violations or refuse illegal orders, the Fraud and Abuse Whistle Blower Protection Act covers state government employees and citizens reporting government wrongdoing, and the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act lets private citizens sue on behalf of the Commonwealth and collect a share of what the state recovers. Which statute applies to you decides what you can report, where you file, how long you have to sue, and what you can recover. The shortest deadline — one year under § 40.1-27.3 — runs from the day the retaliation happened, not the day you reported.

Which Law Covers You

Section 40.1-27.3, enacted in 2020, is the broadest of the three. It protects any “employee” from retaliation and defines “employer” to include private businesses and units of state and local government, with no minimum company size.¹ Before this law, private employees in Virginia had almost no state-level protection for reporting employer misconduct. Independent contractors are not employees under the statute and likely fall outside its protections.

The Fraud and Abuse Whistle Blower Protection Act, at Va. Code § 2.2-3009 through § 2.2-3014, is narrower on who counts as a government employee: a person regularly employed full time on a salary or wage basis, paid by a government agency. Temporary and provisional workers are excluded. But the Act also protects “citizen whistleblowers” — any Virginia citizen who witnesses wrongdoing or abuse by a government agency and makes a good-faith report to an appropriate authority.² You don’t have to work for the state to be covered when you report state fraud.

The Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (Va. Code § 8.01-216.1 et seq.) is not primarily a retaliation shield. It is an enforcement tool that lets a private person file a qui tam lawsuit on behalf of the Commonwealth to recover money lost to fraud, with the whistleblower getting a share of the recovery.³

What You Can Report or Refuse

Section 40.1-27.3 protects five specific things:

Reporting a violation of any federal or state law or regulation, internally to a supervisor or externally to a government body or law enforcement, either directly or through someone acting for you.
Cooperating when a government body or law enforcement agency asks you to take part in an investigation, hearing, or inquiry.
Refusing to commit a criminal act that would expose you to criminal liability.
Refusing an employer order to do something that violates federal or state law, provided you tell the employer that is why you are refusing.
Providing information to, or testifying before, any government body or law enforcement official investigating an alleged violation by your employer.¹

The distinction between the third and fourth items matters. Refusing a criminal act is protected outright. Refusing an order that violates a non-criminal law or regulation is only protected if you actually tell the employer that is your reason. Skipping that step can leave you unprotected.

Under the Fraud and Abuse Act, protected disclosures cover “wrongdoing,” defined as a violation of federal or state law, local ordinance, or a formally adopted code of conduct or ethics of a professional organization, as long as the violation is not merely technical or minimal.²

Both laws require good faith. Section 40.1-27.3 requires the report to be made “in good faith.” The Fraud and Abuse Act is more explicit: your disclosure must rest on a reasonable belief that the information is accurate, and reports that are reckless, knowingly false, confidential by law, or malicious are not protected.⁴ You don’t have to be right about the violation, but you need a genuine, reasonable basis for believing one occurred.

What Counts as Retaliation

Section 40.1-27.3 bars an employer from discharging, disciplining, threatening, discriminating against, or penalizing an employee for protected conduct. It also bars retaliation that targets compensation, terms, conditions, location, or privileges of employment.¹ “Location” is worth noting: moving you to an undesirable site after you report can qualify as retaliation even if your pay stays the same.

Firing or demoting someone soon after a report is the obvious form. The subtler forms drive most disputes: a shift change that breaks childcare, a performance review that suddenly turns negative, exclusion from meetings you used to attend. The question is whether the employer’s action is connected to the protected activity.

The Fraud and Abuse Act likewise prohibits discharge, threats, discrimination, and retaliation against whistleblowers, including when the whistleblower is subpoenaed or asked by an authority to participate in an investigation.⁴ Neither law shields you from discipline for your own misconduct or crimes, even if you also happen to be a whistleblower.

Deadlines to Sue

Missing the deadline forfeits the case. The three statutes run on very different clocks.

Section 40.1-27.3: one year from the date of the retaliatory action to file a civil lawsuit. The clock starts the day you are fired, demoted, or otherwise punished, not the day you reported.¹
Fraud and Abuse Act: three years from the date of the retaliatory discharge, discrimination, or retaliation.⁵
Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (qui tam): within six years of the violation, or within three years of when the relevant facts were known or should have been known by the responsible Commonwealth official, but never more than ten years after the violation.⁶

The one-year window for private-sector workers is genuinely short. If § 40.1-27.3 is your statute, talking to a lawyer early is the single most important step you can take.

What You Can Recover

A prevailing employee under § 40.1-27.3 can recover an injunction stopping the retaliation, reinstatement to the same or an equivalent position, and compensation for lost wages, benefits, and other remuneration with interest. The court may also award reasonable attorney fees and costs.¹ The statute does not explicitly authorize punitive damages or emotional distress compensation, so recoveries are primarily economic. The goal is to put you back in the financial position you would have been in without the retaliation.

State employees under the Fraud and Abuse Act can recover reinstatement, back pay, full restoration of fringe benefits and seniority rights, and attorney fees. If the court finds the retaliation was willful and knowing, it can impose a civil penalty between $500 and $2,500 on the employer, paid into the Fraud and Abuse Whistle Blower Reward Fund.⁵ One practical advantage: whistleblowers under this Act do not have to exhaust internal grievance procedures or administrative remedies before suing.

Qui Tam Rewards Under the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act

A defendant who submits false claims to the Commonwealth faces civil penalties between $10,957 and $21,916 per violation, indexed to federal False Claims Act inflation adjustments, plus three times the damages the Commonwealth sustained.⁷ A cooperating defendant that self-reports within 30 days, fully cooperates, and faces no other pending action may have the damages multiplier reduced from triple to double.

Your share depends on whether the Attorney General intervenes. If the AG takes over the case, you receive 15 to 25 percent of the proceeds based on your contribution. If the AG declines and you pursue the case yourself, your share rises to 25 to 30 percent.⁸ On large recoveries those percentages can be substantial.

Citizen whistleblowers whose disclosures lead to a recovery of at least $5,000 may also file a claim for a reward from the Fraud and Abuse Whistle Blower Reward Fund.²

How to File

Under § 40.1-27.3, you file a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction within one year of the retaliation.¹ Under the Fraud and Abuse Act, state employees file in the circuit court where they are employed.⁵ If your employer has multiple locations, the right court is the one covering the jurisdiction where you actually work, not the headquarters.

Qui tam actions start differently. The complaint is filed under seal and served on the Attorney General along with your supporting evidence. The case stays sealed for at least 120 days while the AG investigates and decides whether to intervene; the defendant is not served during that period. If the AG intervenes, the government leads the litigation. If not, you can proceed on your own.

Build the Evidence Now

Retaliation cases usually turn on documentation. Timing is powerful circumstantial evidence. Being fired two weeks after reporting a safety violation speaks for itself, which is why employers who know what they are doing often wait months and build a paper trail of performance issues to create another explanation. Your records need to counter that.

Write down exactly when and how you made your report, who received it, and what you said. If the report was verbal, send a follow-up email so there is a timestamp. Keep copies of any written reports somewhere outside your work systems, because access to company email tends to disappear fast after a termination.

Collect evidence of the adverse action: termination letters, demotion notices, schedule changes, performance reviews whose tone shifted after your disclosure, and any emails that reference your report. Request a copy of your personnel file; the records often reveal inconsistencies in the employer’s stated reasons for discipline.

Identify witnesses. Coworkers who saw the retaliation unfold, supervisors who made comments about your report, and HR staff who handled your complaint can all testify. Write down their names and what they observed while details are fresh. A chronological timeline running from the protected activity through the retaliation to the consequences is the backbone of the case.

1
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 40.1-27.3 – Retaliatory Action Against Employee Prohibited
2
Virginia Code Commission. The Fraud and Abuse Whistle Blower Protection Act – Chapter 30.1
3
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 8.01-216.1 – Citation
4
Virginia Code Commission. The Fraud and Abuse Whistle Blower Protection Act
5
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 2.2-3011 – Discrimination and Retaliatory Actions Against Whistle Blowers Prohibited
6
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act – Article 19.1
7
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 8.01-216.3 – False Claims Civil Penalty
8
Supreme Court of Virginia. Commonwealth of Virginia Opinion – Record No. 170995