The trial began in October 2021, and on November 23, the jury reached a mixed verdict in which they found various defendants liable on claims of civil conspiracy and race-based harassment or violence.

Fields Jr., the perpetrator of the car attack against counterprotesters at the rally, liable for assault and battery and intentional infliction of harm.

[4] Defendants included Jason Kessler, Richard B. Spencer, and Christopher Cantwell, as well as white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations such as Identity Evropa and Vanguard America.

[11][12][13] Marchers included members of the alt-right,[14] neo-Confederates,[15] neo-fascists,[16] white nationalists,[17] neo-Nazis,[18] Klansmen,[19] and far-right militias.

[24] At around 1:45 p.m., self-identified white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters about 1⁄2 mile (800 m) away from the rally site, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 people.

He was tried and convicted in Virginia state court of first-degree murder, malicious wounding, and other crimes in 2018, with the jury recommending a sentence of life imprisonment plus 419 years.

[33][32][34] The following year, Fields pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes in a plea agreement to avoid the death penalty in this trial.

[35] The lawsuit was based in the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was passed by Congress in 1871 to protect African Americans from vigilante attacks.

[46][43] The case was named for the lead plaintiff, Elizabeth Sines, who was a law student at the University of Virginia at the time of the rally.

[43] Default judgments were entered against defendants Andrew Anglin; Moonbase Holdings, LLC; East Coast Knights of the Ku Klux Klan; Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights; Augustus Sol Invictus; Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan; and the Nationalist Front.

Spero wrote that "While even limited disclosure of this information may create some chilling effect, the protections available through a designation of 'highly confidential' mitigate that harm, and Plaintiffs' interest in this information, which is relevant to testing their claims of an alleged violent conspiracy based on racial and religious animus, outweighs the potential harm to [Jane Doe's] right to association".

[5] On April 26, 2019, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel C. Hoppe gave defendant Jeff Schoep seven days to comply with plaintiffs' discovery requests after they alleged he was avoiding producing court-ordered evidence in the lawsuit.

[6] During the discovery phase, Cantwell made violent antisemitic threats against the plaintiff's lawyers,[42] and two attorneys requested to end their representation due to his "repugnant or imprudent" behavior.

[42][6] Kyle Chapman, who was proceeding pro se as a representative for the Fraternal Order of the Alt Knights, called the plaintiffs "verminous cretins" in an email to NPR.

[42] In September 2021, Judge Moon denied a motion for summary judgment filed by the League of the South and its leaders, Hill and Tubbs, allowing the case to proceed to trial.

[58] A video deposition was shown of Samantha Froelich, an ex-girlfriend of Elliot Kline, who described her experiences as a former member of Identity Evropa and the alt-right.

Christopher Cantwell filed a pro se appeal on March 20, 2023, arguing that the jury held "improper passion and prejudice", and that he couldn't adequately prepare his defense as he had been imprisoned on unrelated charges at the time of the trial.