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2015 SESSION


CHAPTER 228
An Act to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 19.2-349.1, relating to the collection of fines, costs, forfeitures, penalties, or restitution by the Department of Motor Vehicles.
[S 1411]
Approved March 17, 2015

 

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 19.2-349.1 as follows:

§ 19.2-349.1. Receipt of unpaid fines, costs, forfeitures, penalties, or restitution by Department of Motor Vehicles.

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.

2. That the Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court shall submit a report of their progress in implementing the provisions of this act by December 1 of each year to the Chairmen of the House and Senate Committees for Courts of Justice and the House and Senate Committees on Transportation.