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DUI law in Virginia
The criminal charge and your driving privileges are separate questions. Check both.
DUI law in Virginia concerns both the criminal charge and the right to drive. The applicable licence process depends on the alleged conduct, test result or refusal, and the notice or court order. A criminal court date is not a substitute for checking a separate licence deadline. The cited rules below identify what has been verified for this jurisdiction.
The two legal questions
The criminal charge and driving privileges can involve different proceedings. The notice, order and cited rule identify the applicable process.
Driving privileges
The licence case
- Forum
- The agency or court identified by the applicable licence proceeding
- Clock
- Check the applicable notice or order for the deadline and its starting event
- Deadline to request a hearing
- For the administrative suspension under Va. Code §46.2-391.2(A), request court review during the period of that suspension.
- Subsection C ties the request window to the actual administrative suspension, rather than prescribing one universal number of days from arrest.
- The suspension durations described in subsection A are not a separate, extendable hearing-request deadline. This answer does not apply to every DMV sanction or a post-conviction license appeal.
- For an adult proceeding, request review in the general district court of the jurisdiction where the arrest was made. This answer does not address juvenile proceedings or promise restoration of driving privileges.
- Suspension under the cited rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- Hearing procedure under the cited rule
- For an adult’s administrative suspension under Va. Code §46.2-391.2, request review in the general district court of the jurisdiction where the arrest was made, during the suspension period.
- Subsection C gives this review priority over other docket matters and links the court’s review timing to its handling of a bail-order appeal. It does not require filing a bail appeal to obtain suspension review.
- Failure to appear without just cause waives the right to review. The court may rescind, reduce or affirm the suspension under the statutory standards; requesting review is not a promise of relief.
- The suspension-review findings are without prejudice and are not evidence in other civil or criminal proceedings. This answer covers the adult administrative-suspension review, not juvenile procedure or a general appeal of a conviction.
Criminal charge
The criminal case
- Forum
- A criminal court
- Clock
- Check court notices and orders; no case duration is predicted here
- Alcohol-concentration threshold
- 0.08% or more in blood, or 0.08 grams or more per 210 liters of breath, while driving or operating a motor vehicle.
- The statute specifies a chemical test administered under the article. It also separately prohibits driving under the influence of alcohol; the numeric threshold is not permission to drive while impaired.
- This is the general alcohol-concentration rule, not a separate rule for commercial drivers or drivers under 21.
- First-offense penalty rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.The cited rule may describe a range or a minimum with conditions, not a predicted sentence.
- Lookback period
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
Alcohol-concentration thresholds in Virginia
The cited provision controls the threshold’s scope. Underage and commercial rules can concern licensing as well as criminal liability; they are not all the same offense.
- Standard drivers
- 0.08% or more in blood, or 0.08 grams or more per 210 liters of breath, while driving or operating a motor vehicle.
- The statute specifies a chemical test administered under the article. It also separately prohibits driving under the influence of alcohol; the numeric threshold is not permission to drive while impaired.
- This is the general alcohol-concentration rule, not a separate rule for commercial drivers or drivers under 21.
- Operating a commercial motor vehicle
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- Under-21 rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
Virginia in detail
8 further Virginia topics — interlock, hardship licences, drug DUI, felony DUI, underage, commercial drivers, checkpoints and record relief — are part of the approved taxonomy and are not built yet.