Va. Code § 46.2-301, Subsection by Subsection

Va. Code § 46.2-301 is the section Virginia charges when someone drives while a license, learner’s permit or privilege to drive is suspended or revoked. Subsection C makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor — up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500 — and subsection D requires the court to impose the same suspension over again. Seven subsections, A through G, do the whole job.

Where § 46.2-301 sits in the Code of Virginia

Title 46.2 is Virginia’s motor vehicle title, and its licensure chapter holds both the sections that take a driving privilege away and the sections that give it back. Section 46.2-301 sits among them as the criminal offense: not a rule about how a license is suspended, but the prohibition on driving once it has been.

That explains something readers often find confusing. Section 46.2-301 never says what gets a license suspended. It only says that while the suspension is running, driving is a crime. The reasons live in other sections — the demerit-point thresholds in 18 points in 12 months, or 24 in 24, the full list in our overview of why a Virginia license gets suspended — and the way back out is in § 46.2-411.

The official current text is on the General Assembly’s Legislative Information System, and that is the version to check before relying on anything written here — including this page.

What Va. Code § 46.2-301 says, subsection by subsection

Subsection	What it does
A	Lets the court extend an impoundment already imposed under § 46.2-301.1 by up to 90 days on conviction, at the offender’s cost
B	The prohibition: no suspended or revoked driver may drive until the period runs, the privilege is reinstated, or a restricted license issues under E. Mopeds excluded
C	“A violation of subsection B is a Class 1 misdemeanor”
D	The court shall re-impose a suspension equal to the original; up to 90 days more where the original had no fixed end; 10-year outer limit
E	The restricted-license route: petition each court that suspended under D; never covers a commercial vehicle
F	Breaking the terms of a § 18.2-271.1 restricted license is not this offense — it is § 18.2-272
G	The court may dismiss on proof of compliance where there is no prior violation of the section in 10 years

Subsection B: the prohibition, and who it reaches

Subsection B applies to “no resident or nonresident,” so a Virginia license is not required for the offense to exist — what matters is the privilege to drive in the Commonwealth. It covers three groups: those whose license, learner’s permit or privilege has been suspended or revoked; those “directed not to drive by any court or by the Commissioner”; and those forbidden to drive here by any Virginia statute or a substantially similar local ordinance.

The prohibition runs on “any highway in the Commonwealth” and reaches “any motor vehicle or any self-propelled machinery or equipment.” One exclusion is written into the subsection: “For the purposes of this section, the phrase ‘motor vehicle or any self-propelled machinery or equipment’ shall not include mopeds.”

It ends when one of three things happens — the period of suspension or revocation terminates, the privilege is reinstated, or a restricted license issues under subsection E. Nothing else lifts it, which is why so many § 46.2-301 charges follow a driver who assumed the clock had run out on its own.

Subsections C and D: the penalty, and the second suspension

Subsection C is the entire penalty clause: one sentence making a violation of subsection B a Class 1 misdemeanor. The sentencing range comes from § 18.2-11 — “confinement in jail for not more than twelve months and a fine of not more than $2,500, either or both.” There is no mandatory minimum in the section, so a judge may impose anything up to that ceiling.

Subsection D is the part with no discretion in it, and the reason this charge behaves unlike any other traffic offense:

• If the earlier suspension was for a definite period, the court “shall suspend the person’s license or privilege to drive a motor vehicle for the same period for which it had been previously suspended or revoked.”
• If it was not for a definite period — an indefinite or compliance-based suspension — the court shall suspend for “an additional period not to exceed 90 days,” starting when the earlier suspension expires, or immediately if it already has.
• Either way, “no such suspension shall extend beyond 10 years from the conviction date,” unless Article 6.1, the commercial driver’s license article, requires it.

The full picture of how that plays out, including the DMV’s six demerit points, is in our guide to what a § 46.2-301 charge actually costs a driver.

Subsection E: the restricted license, and why it needs every court

Subsection E is narrow and procedural. A person “otherwise eligible for a restricted license” may petition each court that suspended his license under subsection D, but only once the period that court imposed — measured from the date of conviction — has expired, “even though the suspension itself has not expired.”

The court may then, for good cause shown, authorize the DMV to issue a restricted license for any of the purposes in subsection E of § 18.2-271.1. Three conditions follow in the text: every court that imposed a subsection D suspension must authorize it; the license terminates on the expiry, cancellation, suspension or revocation of the person’s driving privilege for any other cause; and it may never be used to operate a commercial motor vehicle. The driver may not drive on the court’s order alone — he must wait for the DMV’s restricted license and carry a copy of it at all times. The wider rules on these permits are set out in our page on the fifteen purposes a restricted license can cover.

Subsections F and G: the two exits

Subsection F redirects a whole category of cases. Someone who drives in violation of the terms of a restricted license issued under § 18.2-271.1 E “is not guilty of a violation of this section but is guilty of a violation of § 18.2-272.” That matters, because § 18.2-272 becomes a Class 6 felony on a third conviction within 10 years.

Subsection G is the only provision in the section that can end a case without a conviction. Where there have been “no prior violations or convictions of this section within the past 10 years,” the court “may, in its discretion, dismiss the summons or warrant, where proof of compliance with this section is provided to the court on or before the court date.” Two exclusions: the driver must not hold a commercial driver’s license or commercial learner’s permit, and must not have been operating a commercial vehicle. Where there has been a prior violation, the court may still dismiss or amend the summons on proof of “substantial compliance.”

Because the charge is never prepayable — § 16.1-69.40:1 forbids putting “driving while under suspension or revocation of driving privileges” on the prepayable list — subsection G is the practical reason the weeks before court matter more than the hearing itself. How that plays out on a first charge is covered in driving on a suspended license as a first offense.

The sections § 46.2-301 points to

A reader working through the statute will hit cross-references. These are the ones that carry real weight:

• § 46.2-301.1 — roadside impoundment of the vehicle for 30 days where the suspension was DUI-related, administrative, or for a test refusal.
• § 18.2-271.1 — subsection E lists the fifteen purposes a restricted license may cover, from work travel to a job interview.
• § 18.2-272 — driving after forfeiture, the offense subsection F redirects to.
• § 46.2-392 and § 46.2-393 — court-ordered suspensions for reckless and aggressive driving; both say that violating the resulting restricted permit is punished “as provided in subsection C of § 46.2-301.”
• § 46.2-411 — reinstatement, including the statutory fee, which subsection C doubles for a § 46.2-301 conviction.

A reader whose own summons cites one of those sections rather than § 46.2-301 is in a different part of the law, and a Virginia traffic attorney is the right person to say which. One section a reader will not find alive is § 46.2-395, the old suspension for unpaid court fines and costs. It has been repealed, and what replaced it is explained in our page on the new law on driving on a suspended license.