A speeding ticket under Va. Code § 46.2-870 is a traffic infraction, not a crime. It carries:

• A fine, which varies by speed and jurisdiction
• 3 or 4 demerit points, depending on how far over you were
• Court costs
• Insurance consequences
• Exposure to DMV action if points accumulate. See question 3.

Prepaying is pleading guilty. Paying online is not settling a bill. It enters a conviction, assesses the points, and puts the conviction on your record for years. It is the most common way people acquire a record they did not intend to contest.

Where you were speeding changes the fine. Virginia adds penalties for speeding in highway work zones and school crossing zones, and those additions apply on top of the ordinary fine. If your summons shows a work zone or school zone, the exposure is not what a general fine chart will tell you.

The line that actually matters is question 2. Everything above assumes you are charged with speeding. Above certain thresholds you are not charged with speeding at all.

Under Va. Code § 46.2-862, speeding becomes reckless driving when you drive:

• 20 mph or more over the posted limit, or
• at any speed in excess of 85 mph, regardless of the posted limit

Note the wording: in excess of 85. Exactly 85 is not the offense. 86 is.

Examples:

• 86 in a 70 zone: reckless driving
• 75 in a 55 zone: reckless driving
• 50 in a 25 zone: reckless driving

This is not a worse ticket. It is a different kind of case. Reckless driving is a Class 1 misdemeanor, the same class as DUI and assault and battery. It carries:

• Up to 12 months in jail and a fine up to $2,500
• 6 demerit points
• A lasting criminal record, not a driving record entry
• License suspension of 60 days to six months at the court’s discretion under § 46.2-393. Not “up to six months.” The statute sets a 60-day floor.
• It cannot be prepaid. A court appearance is required.

New as of July 1, 2026. Under § 46.2-393(C), on a reckless-by-speed conviction the court may, as an alternative to suspending your license, order enrollment in the Intelligent Speed Assistance Program: a speed-limiting device on your vehicle, at your expense, for 60 days to six months. Above 100 mph the court must order it unless it suspends instead. Tampering with the device is a separate Class 1 misdemeanor.

If your summons says reckless driving, stop reading speeding ticket pages. You are not facing a ticket.

Now the part that is stated wrong almost everywhere, including on pages that get the points right. Virginia DMV has three thresholds, and they do different things:

12 points in 12 months does not suspend your license. It orders you to a clinic. Suspension is 18 points in 12 months, or 24 in 24, and it runs 90 days. Anyone telling you that 12 points costs you your license is describing the clinic threshold.

Then there is probation, which is where a small ticket gets expensive. After the mandatory clinic you are placed on a control period, and during a probation period any new demerit-point conviction suspends you on a sliding scale: a 6-point offense means 90 days, a 4-point offense 60 days, a 3-point offense 45 days. A 3-point ticket that would have meant nothing two years earlier is a 45-day suspension here.

Two clocks, and they are not the same clock:

• Demerit points expire 2 years from the date of the offense
• The conviction stays on your DMV record for 3 to 11 years, depending on the offense. A 3-point speeding conviction is 3 years. A 4-point is 4 years. Reckless driving is 11 years.

So “the points came off” does not mean the conviction is gone. Insurers and employers look at convictions, not point balances. The points expiring is the smaller half of the story.

Generally yes. Virginia reports convictions to your home state through the Driver License Compact, which covers 45 states and the District of Columbia. Your home state then applies its own rules to the Virginia conviction, and those vary considerably.

Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Tennessee, and Wisconsin are not members. That is not the same as no consequence, and it does not mean the conviction disappears.

For a speeding infraction, counsel can often appear without you. For reckless driving, that changes, because it is a criminal charge. See question 2, and check which one is on your summons.

If you do not appear and do not resolve it, your privilege to drive in Virginia can be suspended, and that gets reported home. A Virginia problem you ignore from another state does not stay in Virginia.

Understand what prepaying is. It is a guilty plea. It produces a conviction, assesses the points, and puts the conviction on your record for years. The convenience is real and so is the cost.

What contesting the ticket can produce:

• Dismissal where the evidence has a problem, including where the officer does not appear
• Reduction to a lower speed, which changes the points from 4 to 3, or to a non-moving violation, which carries no points at all
• A conviction that does not push you across a DMV threshold

When it matters most:

• CDL holders, where 15 or more over is a federal serious violation. See question 6.
• Anyone near a DMV threshold, where this ticket is not about this ticket
• Anyone already on DMV probation, where a 3-point conviction is a 45-day suspension
• Drivers under 18, who are on a stricter system based on the number of violations rather than points
• Anyone charged with reckless driving by speed, which is not a ticket at all

One clarification, because these get mixed up. A driver improvement clinic does not remove a conviction or dismiss a ticket. It adds safe driving points. That is a separate tool from contesting the charge, and you can do it whether or not you contest. See question 9.

Yes, and the reason is more specific than points.

Speeding 15 mph or more over the limit is a “serious violation” under 49 CFR § 383.51, Table 2. That is the fact this page most needs, and it has nothing to do with reporting or with demerit points.

• Two serious violations in 3 years: 60-day disqualification
• Three in 3 years: 120-day disqualification
• They count whether you were driving a CMV or your own car, off duty

Other serious violations include reckless driving, improper or erratic lane changes, following too closely, and texting or using a hand-held phone while driving a CMV.

So a 14-over ticket is a ticket. A 15-over ticket is a countable event on a three-year clock. One mile per hour is the whole difference, which is why the reduction in question 5 does more for a commercial driver than for anyone else.

Reporting is a separate duty, and it is broader. Under 49 CFR § 383.31 you must notify your employer within 30 days of a conviction for any traffic violation except parking, in any vehicle, and notify your licensing state within 30 days of a conviction in another state. That obligation applies to a 5-over ticket. It is not the same thing as a serious violation.

And you cannot use the clinic. Federal anti-masking rules prevent a state from letting a CDL holder use a driver improvement course or diversion to keep a conviction off the record. The tool in question 9 is closed to you.

But masking does not prohibit amendment. A charge reduced to a lower speed produces a conviction at that lower speed. That is a different conviction, not a hidden one, and it only exists before the conviction enters.

Be careful with what you have read here, because a speeding ticket and reckless driving are not the same thing.

A speeding ticket is a traffic infraction, not a criminal conviction. It does not carry the reporting and adjudication weight that a criminal conviction does. Claims that any speeding ticket triggers a clearance investigation overstate it.

Reckless driving is different, because it is a criminal conviction, and that is precisely why the line in question 2 matters so much for service members and cleared personnel.

What can apply either way:

• Base driving privileges operate on their own rules and their own point system, and can be affected by conduct the civilian courts treat lightly
• Command notification obligations attach to criminal charges
• Adjudication weighs the whole person. A single incident does not automatically cost a clearance. Pattern, circumstances, and whether you reported it all count.
• Failing to self-report something you were required to report is a personal conduct issue in its own right, frequently more serious than the underlying matter
• Outcomes vary by branch, rank, record, and facts

If you serve or hold a clearance, the question to answer first is which charge you actually have.

Most speeding cases are heard in General District Court.

• Check in with the clerk
• Wait for your case to be called. Traffic dockets are called in groups and the wait is usually the longest part of the day.
• The officer testifies about the stop and how the speed was measured
• You or your attorney cross-examine, and present any defense or mitigation
• The judge rules
• If found guilty, the judge sets the fine, and the points follow from the conviction by law rather than from the judge’s discretion

One thing worth knowing about traffic dockets. In many Virginia General District Courts, the Commonwealth’s Attorney does not appear for routine traffic infractions. There is frequently no prosecutor in the room to negotiate with. The case is the officer, the evidence, and the judge, which makes what happens at the hearing itself more important than in a case where there is someone to reach an agreement with beforehand.

How the speed was proved is a real question. Radar and lidar require calibration certificates and a trained operator. Pacing depends on the accuracy of the officer’s speedometer. A speedometer calibration on your own vehicle can show it was reading low, which matters most when the reading sits close to a threshold that changes the points, or the charge.

No. Virginia does not dismiss tickets for taking a clinic. That is a different state’s rule and it gets applied to Virginia constantly.

What a driver improvement clinic actually does:

• An approved 8-hour course, online or in person
• Earns +5 safe driving points, which offset demerit points on your DMV balance
• Available once every 24 months
• The course must be DMV-approved to count

What it does not do:

• It does not remove the conviction
• It does not undo the points from the ticket. It offsets your balance.
• It does not affect insurance, because insurers look at the conviction, not your point balance
• It is not available to CDL holders for this purpose. See question 6.

Where it is genuinely useful: if you are sitting near a DMV threshold, taking a clinic voluntarily, before the DMV orders one, can keep you under it. That is point management, and it is worth doing deliberately rather than after a letter arrives.

The clinic and contesting the ticket are different tools for different problems. One manages your balance. The other addresses the conviction.

Weiland Button represents drivers throughout Central and Eastern Virginia, including the cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell, Colonial Heights, Emporia, and Williamsburg, and the counties of Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Caroline, Prince George, Dinwiddie, Brunswick, and others.

The court is set by where the stop happened, not where you live or where you were going. On the interstates this catches people constantly, because county lines fall between exits and the courthouse can be an hour from the mile marker. Check the court named on your summons.

Results depend on the specific facts of each case. Prior outcomes do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any other matter.

Schedule a free consultation about a Virginia speeding or reckless driving charge with Weiland Button.