Virginia Prepayable Offenses Information Sheet
Virginia Prepayable Offenses Information Sheet
If you have been given a Virginia prepayable offenses sheet then you can prepay your Virginia speeding ticket. Note that Virginia reckless driving, defined as driving OVER 80 mph or 20 mph or more over the limit is NOT a Virginia prepayable offense.
If your ticket says Virginia law 46.2-862 then you cannot prepay that. It is a criminal misdemeanor.
How to Prepay your Prepayable Offense in Virginia?
How to prepay your Virginia prepayable offense? In Virginia, some traffic offenses like speeding are prepayable. Reckless driving by speed is NOT a simple speeding ticket, and it is not on the Virginia prepayable offenses information sheet. It is not there for good reason. You should not be able to prepay a reckless driving, and give yourself a permanent criminal record.
If you have a Virginia speeding ticket, you can prepay it according to the uniform fine schedule. Most Virginia speeding tickets are $6 per mph over the speed limit plus additional court costs. The question is, SHOULD you prepay your Virginia speeding ticket? Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Reasons you should NOT prepay your Virginia speeding ticket:
- A good traffic lawyer can USUALLY avoid insurance premium increases.
- Your insurance will likely increase $1000-3000 dollars over the course of the next 3-5 years.
- This is based on the average of the six major insurance carriers.
- A good traffic lawyer can often AVOID POINTS.
- You will get demerit points unless this gets reduced.
- Virginia assigns 3, 4, or 6 demerit points for speeding tickets
- Depending on the location, a Virginia traffic lawyer can often get the case DISMISSED.
- In the long run, it is usually MUCH cheaper to get the speeding ticket reduced or dismissed.
- Lastly, a reduced or dismissed charge makes your DRIVING RECORD LOOK BETTER.
- this increases the chances that in the future if you get another ticket it's more likely you will get a better outcome
Here are the top reasons to prepay a Virginia speeding ticket:
- you don't have the funds to drive to Virginia or hire a lawyer
- your driving record is such that no judge will help you do better
Steps to Take BEFORE You Prepay Your Virginia Prepayable Offense
- Contact a Virginia traffic law specialist in the area location where you got your speeding ticket or traffic ticket.
- Get a free consultation to figure out your options.
- Be careful who you get your consultation from.
- many lawyers market to different areas where they don't actually know what happens
- this results in very bad advice
- really make sure that the person you are talking to has handled over 500 cases in the location you are seeking advice
- also verify all reviews to make sure you are dealing with an ethical and honest lawyer
- pro tip: verify the lawyer doesn't have a history of malpractice with the Virginia State Bar
Steps to Prepay Your Virginia Speeding Ticket
- Verify you have a prepayable offense. As long as it's NOT reckless driving, and it is a simple speeding ticket then you can prepay according to the fine schedule.
- Wait for your case to show up on the court website.
- the officer first has to turn in his or her copy of the ticket, and then the clerk's office will put this on the court website
- Once this is on the court website, and assuming your case is prepayable, you can go online and prepay this before the speeding ticket.
- when you prepay, you are PLEADING GUILTY and the conviction will show up on your driving record
- The link to prepay your offense is here: VIRGINIA PREPAYABLE OFFENSES INSTRUCTIONS
- When you follow the link, you will need to:
- locate the court where you got your ticket
- search for your specific case
- mark the case for payment and go ahead and pay it
- Juvenile cases usually cannot be prepaid.
- The court charges a 4% convenience fee to pay online.