Improper Control or Improper Driving? What Virginia Really Charges

Virginia has no offence called “improper control.” The charge drivers mean by that phrase is improper driving, and it lives in one sentence of Va. Code § 46.2-869: a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of not more than $500. It matters because improper driving is what a Virginia reckless driving charge is most often reduced to — and a reckless conviction is a Class 1 misdemeanor instead.

Why you cannot find “improper control” in the Code of Virginia

Search the Code of Virginia for “improper control” and nothing comes back. The phrase circulates on forums, in insurance paperwork and in second-hand accounts of what happened in court, but it is not a charge a Virginia officer can write or a judge can convict on.

What exists is improper driving, § 46.2-869, tucked into Article 7 of Chapter 8 of Title 46.2 — the reckless driving article. Knowing the statutory name is the practical point of this page: every court record, every fine schedule and every DMV entry uses “improper driving,” so searching for the other phrase finds nothing useful.

What Va. Code § 46.2-869 actually says

The whole offence is one paragraph:

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this article, upon the trial of any person charged with reckless driving where the degree of culpability is slight, the jury or the court trying the case without a jury may find the accused not guilty of reckless driving but guilty of improper driving. However, an attorney for the Commonwealth may reduce a charge of reckless driving to improper driving at any time prior to the court’s decision and shall notify the court of such change. Improper driving shall be punishable as a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of not more than $500.

Three things follow from that wording. Improper driving is not something an officer charges at the roadside — it starts life as a reckless driving charge. It is a traffic infraction, which under Va. Code § 46.2-100 is “neither a felony nor a misdemeanor.” And the ceiling on the fine is $500, higher than the $250 default that Va. Code § 46.2-113 sets for Title 46.2 offences that name no figure of their own.

The section was last amended in 2025 (c. 357), which added the prosecutor’s route described below.

Improper driving compared with reckless driving in Virginia

	Improper driving (§ 46.2-869)	Reckless driving (§§ 46.2-852, 46.2-862)
Classification	Traffic infraction	Class 1 misdemeanor (§ 46.2-868)
Criminal record	No — neither a felony nor a misdemeanor	Yes, a criminal conviction
Maximum fine	$500	$2,500 (§ 18.2-11)
Jail	None	Up to 12 months
Court costs	$51	$61
DMV demerit points	3	6
Years on the Virginia driving record	3	11
Jury in district court	No (§ 19.2-258.1)	No; jury only on appeal

The two reckless driving sections drivers meet most often are the general rule in Va. Code § 46.2-852 — driving “so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person” — and the speed rule in Va. Code § 46.2-862, which 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 posted limit. Both carry the Class 1 misdemeanor penalty in Va. Code § 46.2-868.

The two routes from reckless driving to improper driving

The court’s route. At trial, if the judge (or a jury) finds the degree of culpability was slight, the court may find the accused not guilty of reckless driving but guilty of improper driving. The finding belongs to the court, not to the driver, and it is made on the evidence actually heard.

The prosecutor’s route. An attorney for the Commonwealth may reduce a reckless driving charge to improper driving at any time before the court’s decision, and must tell the court the charge has changed. The 2025 amendment spelled this out; it is why some cases are resolved as improper driving before any evidence is taken.

Neither route is automatic and neither can be predicted from a summons. What a particular Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office does with a given set of facts varies by jurisdiction, and a Virginia traffic attorney who practises in that court is the person who can say what is realistic.

What improper control driving in Virginia costs

Add three numbers, not one:

1. The fine — up to $500. The judge sets it within that ceiling. Improper driving is not on the prepayable list, because it only exists as an outcome in a case that is already before the court.
2. Court costs — $51. Va. Code § 16.1-69.48:1 subsection D fixes the district court fee for a traffic infraction at $51; subsection B sets $61 for a misdemeanor. The fee is added to the fine, not included in it.
3. Three demerit points, for three years. The DMV assigns improper driving three points and keeps it on the driving record for three years. A reckless driving conviction is one of the DMV’s six-point violations and stays on the record for eleven years.

For how the same arithmetic works on an ordinary ticket, see what a Virginia traffic ticket costs.

What the reduction does not do

Improper driving is still a conviction. It is reported to the DMV, it carries points, and insurers can see it. What it removes is the criminal part: a Class 1 misdemeanor on the record, the jail exposure, and the answer a driver has to give on forms that ask about criminal convictions. That is the whole value of the reduction, and it is substantial — but it is not a dismissal.

A driver who is convicted of either offence in a general district court has ten days to note an appeal to the circuit court under Va. Code § 16.1-132, and the appeal is of right, even after a guilty plea.

If you are trying to work out which category your own summons falls into, traffic infractions in Virginia explains the dividing line, and Virginia traffic tickets and the three routes out of one covers the options on the court date itself.