The New Law on Driving on a Suspended License in Virginia

The change people are searching for is not to the offense but to the reasons behind it: § 46.2-395, which required the DMV to suspend a license for unpaid court fines and costs, has been repealed. Its entry in the Code now reads only “Repealed.” Driving on a suspended license is still a Class 1 misdemeanor under Va. Code § 46.2-301, unchanged in substance — but one of the commonest routes into that charge no longer exists.

What the new law changed about driving on a suspended license

Three things have actually moved, and it is worth separating them, because most of what circulates online conflates all three.

Change	Where it sits	Effect
Suspension for unpaid court fines and costs abolished	§ 46.2-395, repealed by Acts 2020, cc. 964 and 965	Court debt alone can no longer suspend a Virginia license
Court debt handled by payment terms instead	§ 19.2-354, amended by the same 2020 acts	Installment and deferred-payment agreements, and community-service credit, in place of payment
A speed limiter as an alternative to a points suspension	§ 46.2-506 B, amended in the 2025 session (Acts 2025, c. 652)	At 18 points in 12 months the driver may choose the Intelligent Speed Assistance Program instead of losing the license

Section 46.2-301 itself carries amendments from 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025. The text quoted throughout this site is the current version on the General Assembly’s Legislative Information System, which is the one to check before relying on anything written here.

Unpaid court fines no longer suspend a Virginia license

This is the single most out-of-date claim on Virginia traffic-law pages. Section 46.2-395 used to require the Commissioner to suspend the driving privilege of anyone who failed to pay a fine, costs, forfeiture or penalty imposed by a court. It was repealed by Acts 2020, chapters 964 and 965 — the same pair of acts that amended § 46.2-301 and the DMV’s notice section, § 46.2-416.

Two consequences matter for a reader.

First, a Virginia license cannot be suspended for court debt alone today. If a suspension is in force, the reason is something else: demerit points, a conviction that carries a suspension by statute, a DUI-related revocation, an insurance or compliance failure, or a court order. Every one of those grounds survived the repeal untouched.

Second, owing the money still has consequences — just not this one. Section 19.2-354 lets the sentencing court authorize deferred or installment payment agreements, and provides for credit toward the balance for community service work. Unpaid amounts remain enforceable by the court’s own collection machinery. What changed is that the licence is no longer the lever.

There is one more knock-on worth knowing. A restricted license issued under subsection E of § 18.2-271.1 does not require the driver to have paid his fines and costs in full first: the subsection says a person otherwise eligible “shall not be required to pay in full his fines and costs” before the restricted license issues.

The offense itself did not change

Anyone hoping the “new law” softened § 46.2-301 will be disappointed. The current text still provides:

• Subsection C — a violation of subsection B is a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable under § 18.2-11 by up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
• Subsection D — on conviction the court shall suspend the license again for the same period as the original suspension, or for an additional period not to exceed 90 days where the original had no definite end, with a 10-year outer limit measured from the conviction date.
• Subsection E — a restricted license only by petition to every court that suspended under subsection D, and never for a commercial vehicle.
• Subsection G — the court may dismiss the summons on proof of compliance where there is no prior violation of the section within 10 years.

Subsection G is the provision that does the work for most first-time defendants, and it is in the current text rather than a recent addition. How it is used is set out in the subsection G dismissal on a first charge, and the section is read subsection by subsection here.

The 2025 change: a speed limiter instead of a suspension

The other genuinely new rule concerns how a points suspension is served. Section 46.2-506 B, as amended in the 2025 session, now gives a driver who has accumulated 18 demerit points in 12 months, or 24 in 24 months, a choice. The Commissioner must either suspend the license for 90 days and thereafter until a driver improvement clinic is completed, or require enrollment in the Intelligent Speed Assistance Program for nine months together with a clinic. The DMV sends written notice with both options, and the driver has 30 days to say which he wants; failing to answer within 30 days means the suspension.

A speed limiter for nine months is a longer commitment than 90 days without a license, but it is nine months of driving rather than three months of not. Neither option permits the operation of a commercial motor vehicle. The point thresholds behind all of this are set out in the 18-point and 24-point suspension rules.

What this means if your license is suspended right now

1. Find out the actual reason. If a page or a memory tells you it is unpaid court fines, that ground no longer exists; ask the DMV what the current requirement is.
2. Deal with the court debt separately. Payment terms and community-service credit are available under § 19.2-354, and clearing the balance is no longer a precondition for a § 18.2-271.1 E restricted license.
3. Do not drive in the meantime. Nothing in the 2020 or 2025 changes softened § 46.2-301, and the second suspension in subsection D is mandatory on conviction.
4. Then reinstate. The statutory reinstatement fee sits in § 46.2-411 C, and the compliance items come first; the sequence is in our guide to reinstating a suspended license in Virginia.

Claims to be careful with

• “The new law made it a civil offense.” It did not. Section 46.2-301 C still reads “a violation of subsection B is a Class 1 misdemeanor.”
• “You can pay it online now.” No. Driving while suspended is on the list of offenses § 16.1-69.40:1 forbids from the prepayable schedule, so there is always a court date.
• “The extra suspension was removed.” Subsection D is still mandatory, and the roadside impoundment in § 46.2-301.1 still applies to DUI-related and administrative suspensions.
• “Section 46.2-395 gives you a defense.” A repealed section is not authority for anything. It is simply no longer a route to a suspension. If a summons or a DMV notice appears to rest on it, that is worth putting to a Virginia traffic attorney rather than arguing from a website. The wider picture of what does and does not suspend a Virginia license is in our overview of every ground for a Virginia license suspension.