The Prepayable Offenses Information Sheet in Your Virginia Courthouse

The prepayable-offence list a Virginia clerk hands you is the local face of one statewide document: the Traffic Infractions and Uniform Fine Schedule, adopted by rule of the Supreme Court of Virginia under Va. Code § 16.1-69.40:1. The same section says the schedule “shall be uniform in its application throughout the Commonwealth” and must be “prominently posted in the place where the fines are paid.”

What the Virginia prepayable offenses information sheet is

It answers one question: which traffic charges can be disposed of without going to court, and for how much. The mechanism is a pretrial waiver of appearance, a plea of guilty and payment of the fine — and the clerk must first tell the payer that they have the right to stand trial, that the guilty plea has the same force and effect as a judgment of court, and that the conviction will be reported to the Commissioner of the DMV.

Three bodies shape it. The Supreme Court designates by rule which infractions are prepayable. The Committee on District Courts recommends the schedule of amounts, which the Supreme Court then establishes “within the limits prescribed by law”. And each circuit’s chief judge may add a schedule for local ordinances that do not parallel state law, which the clerk of the local circuit court forwards to the Supreme Court within 10 days of entry.

What the statute keeps off the list

Six categories may never be designated prepayable, whatever the schedule says:

1. Indictable offences.
2. Driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor, marijuana, or a narcotic or habit-producing drug — or permitting a person under the influence to drive a vehicle you own or control.
3. Reckless driving.
4. Leaving the scene of an accident.
5. Driving while under suspension or revocation of driving privileges.
6. Driving without being licensed to drive.

Each of those requires an appearance in the general district court. For what the Code means by an infraction in the first place, see the infraction-misdemeanor dividing line. For reckless driving the practical consequence is often misunderstood: there is no amount to prepay because the fine is the judge’s to set at the hearing, within the Class 1 misdemeanor maximum of $2,500 in Va. Code § 18.2-11.

What the statute puts on it

The Code leaves most of the list to the Supreme Court’s rule but fixes two things directly.

Speeding amounts are per mile per hour. Va. Code § 46.2-878.3 requires the schedule to include $6 per mile per hour in excess of the posted limit, $7 for school crossing zones and highway work zones, and $8 in a posted residence district — and § 16.1-69.40:1 A adds that the prepayable amount for a residence-district violation is the section’s own $200 fine plus that per-mile-per-hour figure. A further $100 applies above 80 but below 86 mph where the limit is 65.

An accident does not remove the option. The statute says a person charged with a prepayable offence “may prepay his fines and costs without court appearance whether or not he was involved in an accident.” That sentence overrides any rule of the Supreme Court to the contrary, and it contradicts a good deal of older advice.

The six have one thing in common: none of them is a traffic infraction, and subsection A only empowers the Supreme Court to designate traffic infractions as prepayable in the first place. A clerk cannot take a plea on them because there is no scheduled amount to take, and no rule of the Supreme Court can create one.

What the sheet does not decide

It does not bind the judge. Both subsections C and D say the schedule “shall not be construed or interpreted so as to limit the discretion of any trial judge trying individual cases at the time fixed for trial.” The amount on the sheet is what you pay to avoid a trial, not what you will be fined if you have one.

It does not include court costs. Those are separate and fixed by Va. Code § 16.1-69.48:1: $51 for a traffic infraction, $61 for a misdemeanor, charged once per incident.

It does not cover offences with no stated fine. Where a Title 46.2 section names no penalty, Va. Code § 46.2-113 caps the fine at the Class 4 misdemeanor maximum of $250 — and the schedule sets the prepayable figure somewhere inside that.

Local ordinances have their own sheet

A summons that cites a county or town code rather than a state section is common, and subsection D handles it: fines under local traffic ordinances that do not parallel state law may be prepayable if the offences appear in a schedule entered by order of the local circuit court. The chief judge of each circuit may set those amounts within the limits the local ordinances allow, and the schedule is uniform throughout that circuit — so the prepayable amount for a purely local offence can differ between circuits, while the state-law amounts do not.

Where to get the current sheet

From the clerk of the general district court named on your summons, or posted in the office where fines are paid — the statute requires it to be there. Virginia’s judiciary also publishes guidance on paying tickets and other offences and maintains a statewide online case information system where a general district court case can be looked up. Schedules are amended from time to time, so a figure quoted anywhere else, including here, should be confirmed with the clerk before payment.

Two practical points about the version you are handed. It shows the fine only: the fixed court cost is added separately at payment, so the sheet’s number is never the total. And it is a schedule of amounts, not a list of every offence in Virginia — a charge that does not appear on it is not necessarily excluded by statute, it may simply be one for which no prepayable amount has been set, in which case the court date stands.

Where a charge is not on the sheet and the court date stands, a Virginia traffic attorney who practises in that courthouse is the person who can say what the hearing is likely to involve. What paying it actually does to your record is set out in paying a Virginia fine online, and the alternatives in what else you can do with a Virginia traffic ticket.