A Loudoun County Traffic Ticket: Cost, Court and Options

A Loudoun County traffic ticket is a summons returnable to the Loudoun County General District Court in Leesburg. Most are traffic infractions that can be settled without an appearance; the fine follows a statewide schedule and court costs are fixed by statute at $51 on an infraction and $61 on a misdemeanor. A handful of charges cannot be paid at all.

What the piece of paper actually is

It is not a bill and it is not an admission. Under Va. Code § 46.2-936 an officer who stops a driver for a misdemeanor under Title 46.2 takes the driver’s name, address and licence number and issues “a summons or otherwise notif[ies] him in writing to appear at a time and place to be specified.” The driver’s signature is a written promise to appear, and on giving it the officer “shall forthwith release him from custody.”

The same section gives a right most people never use: a person issued a summons may demand an immediate hearing, or a hearing within 24 hours at a convenient hour, before a court with jurisdiction in the county where the offense was committed.

Which court hears a Loudoun County traffic ticket

The Loudoun County General District Court, sitting in Leesburg. Section 16.1-123.1 gives each general district court exclusive original jurisdiction over “all other misdemeanors and traffic infractions arising in such county, including the towns in such county, or city.”

The words “including the towns” do real work in Loudoun, which has more incorporated towns than most Virginia counties. A summons written by a town police officer in Leesburg, Purcellville, Middleburg, Round Hill, Hamilton, Hillsboro or Lovettsville is still a Loudoun County case, heard in the same courtroom as one written by a deputy on a county road.

Loudoun shares the twentieth judicial district with Fauquier and Rappahannock counties, but those are separate localities with their own general district courts; sharing a district does not move a case.

A driver under 18 is not in the general district court at all: § 16.1-241 gives the juvenile and domestic relations district court exclusive original jurisdiction over a child charged with a traffic infraction.

What a Loudoun County traffic ticket costs

Two numbers, added together.

The fine depends on the charge. Most Title 46.2 offenses name no figure of their own, and for all of them § 46.2-113 supplies the ceiling: unless the section says otherwise, a violation of Title 46.2 is a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of not more than the Class 4 misdemeanor maximum, which is $250. Prepayable charges are set well below that by the Supreme Court of Virginia’s Uniform Fine Schedule. A few sections name their own penalty instead — speeding in a school crossing zone under § 46.2-873 is one.

The fixed fee is not discretionary. Section 16.1-69.48:1 assesses court costs of $51 in a traffic infraction tried in district court and $61 in a misdemeanor, and adds $35 where a defendant fails to appear unless good cause is shown at a hearing he requests.

What a speeding charge specifically costs, mile per mile, is set out on the Loudoun County speeding ticket page.

Paying it — and what paying means

Section 16.1-69.40:1 lets a traffic violations clerk take a pretrial waiver of appearance, a plea of guilty and payment of the scheduled fine for designated infractions, and allows prepayment of anything on the Uniform Fine Schedule “whether or not he was involved in an accident.”

Subsection B is the part to read before reaching for a card. The driver must be told, before the plea and payment, “that his signature to a plea of guilty will have the same force and effect as a judgment of court, and that the record of conviction will be sent to the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles.” Prepaying is a conviction. It carries the demerit points the offense carries and forecloses any reduction.

The statute also keeps a short list off the prepayable schedule entirely, along with indictable offenses: driving under the influence, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, driving while suspended or revoked, and driving without being licensed. Those require somebody to appear.

Virginia’s judiciary publishes a general guide to paying traffic tickets; how the Loudoun court itself takes payment is on the court’s own page, which is where the current telephone numbers and hours live.

Ignoring it

Not responding is the worst of the available options, and it gets worse the more serious the charge.

On a misdemeanor, failure to comply with the terms of a summons is a Class 1 misdemeanor in its own right under § 46.2-938. The court may order a warrant, and where the warrant is returned unserved the DMV suspends the driver’s licence until the court reports that he has appeared.

On a traffic infraction, § 19.2-258.1 takes a different route: the driver is deemed to have waived a court hearing, the case is heard in his absence and he is notified of the result, and no warrant issues for the non-appearance. The conviction and the points arrive anyway.

Contesting it

A not-guilty plea puts the Commonwealth to proof. The officer testifies; the driver may cross-examine and put on evidence; the judge decides that day, without a jury.

If the decision goes against you, § 16.1-132 gives ten days to appeal to the Loudoun Circuit Court, and the appeal is a completely new trial rather than a review. Section 17.1-275 is the circuit clerk’s general fee schedule — recording, process, copies of records — and carries no fee for a traffic appeal, so ask the clerk what noting one will cost rather than relying on a published figure. Costs are taxed on a conviction.

To check a case or a hearing date, use Virginia’s online case information system and select Loudoun County. Tickets written in Fairfax are handled the same way but by a different court — see what a Fairfax summons says and what to do with it and what prepaying a Fairfax County ticket actually does.

What a Leesburg judge makes of a particular summons is not something this page can forecast, and a Virginia traffic attorney can look at the charge and say what is realistic.