How Long Does a Speeding Ticket Stay on Your Record in Virginia?

A speeding conviction stays on a Virginia driving record for five years. The demerit points that come with it — three, four or six — count against the licence for only two years, measured from the date of the offense. A reckless driving conviction, which is what speed of 20 or more over the limit can be charged as, stays for eleven years.

How long a speeding ticket stays on your record in Virginia

The DMV keeps the conviction for a fixed period that depends on what was charged, not on what was paid.

Conviction	Demerit points	Points count for	On the DMV record for
Speeding, overage of 1 to 9 mph	3	2 years	5 years
Speeding, overage of 10 to 19 mph	4	2 years	5 years
Speeding, overage of 20 mph or more	6	2 years	5 years
Reckless driving by speed (§ 46.2-862)	6	2 years	11 years

The gap between the last two rows is the largest single consequence of how a speed charge is written. The same six points sit on the record for five years as a speeding infraction and for eleven as a criminal conviction, because Va. Code § 46.2-862 makes 20 mph or more over the applicable maximum speed limit — or any speed above 85 mph — reckless driving, a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable under Va. Code § 18.2-11 by up to twelve months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500, either or both.

Two clocks, running at different speeds

The points clock starts on the date of the offense, not the date of the conviction or the payment, and runs for two years. It is the one the DMV uses for advisory letters, required clinics and suspensions.

The record clock runs for five years from the conviction for speeding, or eleven for reckless driving, and it is the one anyone looking at the record sees. Nothing happens at the two-year mark except that the points stop counting.

That is why “my points are gone” and “it is off my record” are different statements, and why a driver can be told there are no active points while an insurer is still pricing the conviction. The thresholds those points feed into are set out under what the DMV does at each total.

The court record is a third record

The DMV record and the court record are separate. A speeding charge is disposed of in the General District Court of the county or city where the stop happened, and that court’s case record is public: it can be searched through Virginia’s online case information system, which is what most commercial background-check companies pull. Court records are not governed by the DMV’s five-year and eleven-year retention periods.

For an infraction this rarely matters. For a reckless driving conviction it matters a great deal, because that is a criminal conviction and it shows as one. The difference between the two charges is set out under how the Code divides them.

Can a speeding ticket be removed from a Virginia record?

Not on request, and not by paying it faster. Three things are worth separating:

1. A conviction is not erased by a clinic. Completing a DMV-approved driver improvement clinic subtracts up to five demerit points, once in any two-year period. The conviction itself stays for its full term.
2. Only a dismissal or an acquittal leaves nothing behind. That has to be won in court, before the conviction is entered — which is why the decision to prepay matters so much, since prepaying is a plea of guilty.
3. An appeal reopens the case. A conviction in general district court may be appealed to the circuit court within ten days, even after a guilty plea, and the appeal is a new trial.

What a calibration certificate can do to the charged speed is set out under what a calibration is actually worth in court, and the decision that closes the door — prepaying rather than appearing — is covered under the decision to prepay or appear. Whether a particular charge can still be contested before the conviction is entered is a question for a Virginia traffic attorney.

The speed tickets that never reach the record at all

A photo speed monitoring summons that arrives in the mail is the exception. Va. Code § 46.2-882.1 caps the civil penalty at $100, attaches liability only at 10 mph or more above the posted speed limit in the monitored zone, and — in subsection F — provides that imposing the penalty by mailing a summons “shall not be deemed a conviction as an operator and shall not be made part of the operating record”, nor may it be used for insurance purposes in providing motor vehicle insurance coverage.

So a mailed camera ticket adds nothing: no demerit points, nothing on the driving record, nothing an insurer may use. The same subsection carries the exception: where a law-enforcement officer uses the device and personally issues a summons at the time of the violation, the resulting conviction does go on the driving record and may be used for insurance. The whole of it is covered under mailed camera summonses.

What the charged speed has to do with the record

Since the record consequence is banded, every mile per hour near a boundary is worth something. Va. Code § 46.2-882 makes a laser, radar, odometer-cable or aircraft device reading prima facie evidence of the speed, caps a device’s calibration at six months (12 months for a photo speed monitoring device), and makes a certificate of calibration — including one for the driver’s own speedometer — admissible as evidence of what it states. A charged speed reduced from 20 over to 19 moves the case off the eleven-year row entirely.

The fine follows the same arithmetic: Va. Code § 46.2-878.3 prices prepayable speeding at $6 per mile per hour, so the money and the record move together. The totals are on the cost page.

Out-of-state licences

Virginia demerit points attach only to a Virginia licence, and Virginia’s five-year retention applies to the Virginia record. Virginia does report the conviction to the state that issued the licence under the Driver License Compact, and that state’s own retention and points rules then apply, and those rules vary from state to state. That is a question for the home state’s licensing agency rather than for Virginia.