CODE OF VIRGINIA

RECEIPT OF UNPAID FINES, COSTS, FORFEITURES, PENALTIES, OR RESTITUTION BY
DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES (§ 19.2-349.1)

At the direction of the Committee on District Courts or at the request of a
circuit court clerk, the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court may enter into
an agreement with the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles
authorizing the Department of Motor Vehicles to receive, on behalf of a district
or circuit court, payment of any delinquent fines, costs, forfeitures, and
penalties, including any court-ordered restitution of a sum certain, imposed by
a court for the violation of a state law or a local ordinance. However, in no
case shall the Department of Motor Vehicles be authorized to establish an
installment plan for any such payments or to receive partial payment of the full
amount imposed by the court for the violation of a state law or a local
ordinance.For each such payment it receives, the Department of Motor Vehicles
may impose and collect a processing fee, to be used to defray the costs of the
transaction to the Department. Such transaction fee shall be $ 2, unless payment
is made by credit card or debit card and the merchant’s fees and other
transaction costs imposed by the card issuer are charged to the Department of
Motor Vehicles, in which case the processing fee shall be the greater of (i) $ 2
or (ii) an amount not to exceed four percent of the amount of the payment. The
Department may also collect any processing fee charged by a private vendor
operating under contract to distribute to the court payments received by the
Department. All processing fees imposed and collected by the Department of Motor
Vehicles under this section shall be in addition to the other fees specified in
this chapter. All such processing fees collected by the Department of Motor
Vehicles shall be paid into the state treasury as provided in § 46.2-206 and
used to meet the expenses of the Department of Motor Vehicles. The service
charge provided under § 46.2-212.1 shall not be added to the processing fee
authorized under this section. Other fees specified in this chapter, including
those payable pursuant to collections contracts made by attorneys for the
Commonwealth, shall not be diminished or offset due to receipt of payments by
the Department of Motor Vehicles.

HISTORY: 2015, c. 228.