How Much Are Traffic Tickets in Virginia? The Arithmetic

Most Virginia traffic tickets come to a fine of up to $250 plus $51 in court costs. The cap is in Va. Code § 46.2-113, which makes any Title 46.2 violation a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of not more than the Class 4 misdemeanor maximum — $250 under Va. Code § 18.2-11 — unless the offence’s own section names a figure. A good many do.

Why your ticket does not show a total

Because in most cases there isn’t one yet. Virginia’s summons tells you the charge and the court date. If the offence is on the Supreme Court’s prepayable list, the amount is set by the statewide Uniform Fine Schedule and the clerk can tell you what it is. If it is not, the judge sets the fine within the statutory ceiling on the day, and the fixed court cost is added afterwards.

That is also why “Virginia traffic ticket calculator” tools disagree with each other. Two numbers are fixed by statute, one is discretionary, and the fourth — insurance — is not the court’s business at all.

Part one of a Virginia traffic ticket: the fine

The default: $250. Most moving-violation sections state a rule and stop. Following too closely at Va. Code § 46.2-816 — “more closely than is reasonable and prudent” — names no penalty. Neither does the stop-sign and yield rule at Va. Code § 46.2-821, nor the requirement to obey traffic control devices at Va. Code § 46.2-830. For all of them § 46.2-113 supplies the answer: a traffic infraction, fine of not more than $250.

The exceptions, which are what people are usually asking about:

Offence	Section	Fine in the statute
Improper driving	§ 46.2-869	Not more than $500
Speeding in a highway work zone (workers present)	§ 46.2-878.1	Not more than $500
Speeding in a posted residence district	§ 46.2-878.2	$200, no part suspendable without 20 hours of community service
Handheld phone, first offence	§ 46.2-818.2	$125
Handheld phone, second or later	§ 46.2-818.2	$250
Handheld phone in a highway work zone	§ 46.2-818.2	$250 mandatory
Failure to stay in a marked lane	§ 46.2-804	$100
Adult seat belt	§ 46.2-1094	$25 civil penalty
Child restraint, first violation	§ 46.2-1098	A civil penalty of $50, not suspendable

Above a certain speed the question changes entirely. Va. Code § 46.2-862 makes it reckless driving to drive 20 miles per hour or more in excess of the applicable maximum speed limit, or in excess of 85 miles per hour whatever the limit — a Class 1 misdemeanor, which means a possible fine of up to $2,500, up to 12 months in jail, and a criminal record.

Local ordinances are priced locally. A summons citing a county or town code rather than a state section is charged under that locality’s ordinance, and for ordinances that do not parallel state law the prepayable amount comes from a schedule entered by the local circuit court rather than from the statewide one. The ceiling is still the state penalty for a similar offence.

Speeding: the per-mile-per-hour schedule

Prepayable speeding fines are not a flat amount. Va. Code § 46.2-878.3 directs the Uniform Fine Schedule to include:

• $6 per mile per hour over the posted limit, generally;
• $7 per mile per hour for school crossing zones (§ 46.2-873) and highway work zones (§ 46.2-878.1);
• $8 per mile per hour in a posted residence district (§ 46.2-878.2) — on top of that section’s $200 fine;
• an extra $100 for driving above 80 mph but below 86 mph on a highway with a 65 mph limit.

So 15 mph over on an ordinary road is $90 in fine, plus $51 in costs. The same 15 mph over in a marked school crossing zone is $105 plus costs. The schedule itself is published by the courts and changes from time to time, so confirm the current figure with the clerk before paying.

Worked through, for 15 mph over the posted limit:

Where	Fine	Costs	Total
An ordinary road	$90 (15 × $6)	$51	$141
A marked school crossing zone	$105 (15 × $7)	$51	$156
A posted residence district	$320 ($200 + 15 × $8)	$51	$371

Those totals assume the charge is prepayable and prepaid at the scheduled amount. Appear instead and the judge sets the fine within the statutory maximum, which can be higher or lower.

Part two: court costs, which are fixed

Va. Code § 16.1-69.48:1 sets the district court fee, and it is genuinely fixed — it does not vary by court, by county or by how serious the ticket was:

• $51 for a traffic infraction (subsection D);
• $61 for a misdemeanor (subsection B);
• $35 extra where the defendant fails to appear, unless good cause is shown at a hearing they request.

Two refinements worth knowing. The fee is charged once per incident, not once per charge: a driver with three charges from one stop pays one fee, at the highest applicable rate, and the difference is collected later if a higher-fee charge is convicted afterwards. And the fee is assessed not only on a finding of guilt but also on a written guilty plea, a trial in absence, and a case where the court orders a driver improvement clinic in lieu of a finding of guilt.

Appealing to the circuit court is a separate step, and the Code fixes no single figure for what it costs. Va. Code § 17.1-275 is the circuit court clerk’s schedule of fees for services of the office — recording a document, making out a copy of a record, issuing a licence — and it says nothing about appeals.

Why Virginia traffic ticket costs differ for the same charge

Four reasons, and none of them is the county:

1. Prepaid or tried. The Uniform Fine Schedule amount applies to a prepayment. A judge hearing the case is not limited by it in either direction.
2. Infraction or misdemeanor. The court cost is $51 or $61, and the fine ceiling is $250 or, for a Class 1 misdemeanor, $2,500.
3. Charged alone or with others. The fixed fee is taxed once per incident, so a second and third charge from the same stop add fines but not a second fee.
4. Appeared or not. Failing to appear adds $35 and, for an infraction, produces a conviction in absence anyway.

Part three: the cost nobody sends you a bill for

A conviction is reported to the DMV, which assigns demerit points under the Uniform Demerit Point System and keeps the entry on the driving record for a period that depends on the offence. Insurers price from that record, and how much a given conviction moves a given premium is a matter for the insurer rather than for any statute. What the Code fixes is which convictions reach the record at all, which is why the difference between a conviction and a reduction can matter more than the difference between a $90 fine and a $120 one.

How long the entry stays and how many points it carries depend on the offence, and both are published by the DMV rather than fixed in the Code. What the Code does fix is that the conviction is reported: a driver prepaying a fine must be told in advance that the record of conviction goes to the Commissioner of the DMV.

Points are also why prepaying is not simply the cheap option: paying the fine online is a guilty plea and produces exactly the same points as a conviction after a trial.

What the ticket price does not include

The fine and the fixed fee are the court’s business, and they are the whole of what the court will ask for. Several other costs get folded into “how much did that ticket cost me” and none of them are:

• Towing and storage, where a vehicle was removed. That is a bill from the operator, not from the court.
• DMV charges. Reinstating a suspended licence, or clearing an insurance-monitoring requirement, is a DMV matter with its own fees, and no court fine has anything to do with it.
• The insurance premium, which is set by an insurer reading the driving record and is not payable to anyone in Virginia government.
• An attorney, where one is hired.

The one authority on what is owed in a particular case is the clerk’s office of the court named on the summons. Any figure quoted anywhere else, including on this page, is the statutory framework rather than your balance.

If you cannot pay

Va. Code § 19.2-354 requires the court to authorise the clerk to set up deferred or instalment payment agreements, and to run a program under which community service work earns credit against the fine and costs — the court must tell you the program exists and give you written terms. Where payment is not made within 90 days of sentencing, the court may add a one-time fee of not more than $10 for managing the account.

Note the date-sensitivity: the current § 19.2-354 is headed “Effective until January 1, 2027”, so a successor version exists. What happens to a balance that is never paid at all is covered in what Virginia does about an unpaid court fine.

For the options that decide which of these numbers you end up with, see your three options after a Virginia traffic ticket, and for the dividing line between a ticket and a criminal charge, what counts as a traffic infraction.