Offenses are either felonies or misdemeanors. Such offenses as are punishable with confinement in a state correctional facility are felonies; all other offenses are misdemeanors. Traffic infractions are violations of public order as defined in § 46.2-100 and not deemed to be criminal in nature.
Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-8
Felonies, misdemeanors and traffic infractions defined
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case 4 Va. App. 303 - Wright v. Commonwealth (1987)
Most recently applied in Jones v. State (July 2011)
Code 1950, § 18.1-6; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1977, c. 585; 2021, Sp
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Virginia Law Portal (LIS). Reproduced from public-domain Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.