A Fairfax Traffic Ticket: What the Summons Says and What to Do

A Fairfax traffic ticket is a summons: a written promise to appear in the general district court of the locality where the stop happened, not a bill. You have three things you can do with it, and one of them — paying it — is a guilty plea that goes to the DMV as a conviction.

What a Fairfax traffic ticket is, legally

Va. Code § 46.2-936 explains why you were not taken anywhere. For a misdemeanor under Title 46.2 the arresting officer 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 in such summons or notice,” and on the driver’s written promise to appear “shall forthwith release him from custody.”

The date printed on it is at least five days out unless the driver demands something sooner — and he may: the section gives a right to an immediate hearing, or a hearing within 24 hours at a convenient hour, before a court with jurisdiction where the offense was committed.

Signing it admits nothing. It promises attendance.

Fairfax County or the City of Fairfax?

Two different courts answer to the name. Section 16.1-123.1 gives each general district court exclusive original jurisdiction over misdemeanors and traffic infractions “arising in such county, including the towns in such county, or city.”

• A summons written anywhere in Fairfax County, including in the towns of Vienna, Herndon or Clifton, is a county case for the Fairfax County General District Court.
• A summons written inside the City of Fairfax, which is an independent city and not part of the county, goes to the city’s own general district court.

Read the locality line on the paper rather than the mailing address. Much of Fairfax County uses postal addresses that name other places entirely — most often Alexandria, which is an independent city outside any county and has a general district court of its own. A summons that says Alexandria on the envelope and Fairfax County on the locality line is a county case.

Why the charge may cite an ordinance you cannot find in the Code

Counties, cities and towns may adopt their own traffic ordinances under § 46.2-1300, provided they do not conflict with state law, and § 16.1-123.1 puts offenses against those ordinances in the same court as state charges. A county ordinance number on the summons changes the citation, not the courtroom, the judge or the procedure.

The three things you can do with it

1. Prepay it. For designated infractions a traffic violations clerk may accept a pretrial waiver of appearance, a plea of guilty and payment of the scheduled fine (§ 16.1-69.40:1). Before taking it the clerk must tell the driver “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.” Details are on the paying a Fairfax County ticket page.

2. Appear and plead guilty. Same conviction, but a judge sets the fine and can hear anything you want to say about it first.

3. Appear and contest it. The Commonwealth has to prove the charge; the officer testifies and can be cross-examined; you may put on evidence. A district court decides without a jury.

Five charges are excluded from prepayment by statute, 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. If the summons names one of those, option 1 does not exist — see reckless driving in Fairfax.

What it costs

The fine on most Title 46.2 infractions is capped by § 46.2-113, which makes a violation of the title a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of not more than the Class 4 misdemeanor maximum — $250 — unless the section states its own figure. Some do: speeding in a school crossing zone is governed by § 46.2-873.

On top of the fine sit fixed court costs, set by § 16.1-69.48:1 at $51 for a traffic infraction and $61 for a misdemeanor, plus $35 for failing to appear unless good cause is shown at a hearing you request.

Speeding, the commonest summons of all, is one of the charges with a figure of its own: where prepayment is allowed the schedule sets a fixed amount for every mile per hour over the limit, worked through on the page for a speeding charge written in Fairfax County.

What happens if you do nothing

It depends on which kind of charge you were given, and the difference is sharp.

On a traffic infraction, § 19.2-258.1 deems a driver who enters no appearance to have waived a hearing, lets the court decide the case in his absence, and expressly bars a warrant for that non-appearance.

On a misdemeanor, § 46.2-938 makes failing to comply with the summons a Class 1 misdemeanor, permits a warrant for the driver’s arrest, and requires DMV to suspend the licence if the warrant comes back unserved — the suspension lasting until the court tells DMV the driver has appeared.

Lost the ticket, or never learned the court date

The court date is a fact about the case, not a fact about the piece of paper, and losing the paper does not postpone anything.

Virginia publishes district court case information at the judiciary’s online case information system, searchable by locality and then by name, case number or hearing date. Choose Fairfax County or the City of Fairfax — they are indexed separately — and search under the name exactly as it appears on the driver’s licence.

A search that finds nothing usually means one of three things: the summons has not been entered yet, which can take days; the name is indexed differently from the way you typed it; or the ticket belongs to a different locality from the one you are searching. None of them means the charge has gone away, and the consequences of treating a missing entry as a dismissal fall under the previous heading. When the date is close and nothing is showing, telephone the clerk’s office listed on the court’s page.

Out-of-state drivers get no relief from distance. The summons is returnable to the Virginia court where the offense occurred, and a Virginia conviction is reported to the DMV whether the driver lives in Virginia or not.

Afterwards

A conviction can be appealed as of right. Section 16.1-132 allows ten days to appeal a non-felony conviction to the circuit court, even after a guilty plea, and the circuit court tries the case afresh.

The judiciary’s ticket payment guide covers what can be paid without appearing.

A summons is a specific document about a specific stop, and a Virginia traffic attorney can read one and say which of the three options is worth taking.