Underage Possession and Buying Alcohol for a Minor in Virginia

Attorney Answer

A first underage-possession conviction in Virginia is not a slap on the wrist — it carries a mandatory minimum of either a $500 fine or 50 hours of community service, plus a driver's license suspension of six months to a year. And buying alcohol for someone under 21 is a separate Class 1 misdemeanor on top of it.

Before anything else: stop telling people you bought the beer. That sentence is the most dangerous thing in your message, and it is not something to repeat to police, to your friend, in a text, or on a phone call. Say it to a lawyer and to no one else.

On the possession charge, Va. Code sec. 4.1-305 makes illegal purchase, possession, or consumption of alcohol by a person under 21 a Class 1 misdemeanor. On conviction the court must order payment of a mandatory minimum fine of $500 or performance of a mandatory minimum of 50 hours of community service, and must suspend the driver's license for not less than six months and not more than one year. Notice what the mandatory minimum is and is not: the statute's floor is a fine or community service, not jail.

Subsection F of that section is where the first-offender option lives, and it has a sting in the tail. For a person with no prior conviction, the court may defer proceedings and place you on probation with conditions including a treatment or education program, and on successful completion discharge you and dismiss the charge without an adjudication of guilt. But that discharge still counts as a conviction for purposes of applying this section in any subsequent proceeding. So it is not a clean slate for the next time — it is a one-time credit, and taking it has a cost you should understand before you take it.

The second exposure is separate. Va. Code sec. 4.1-306, "Purchasing alcoholic beverages for one to whom they may not be sold," makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person to purchase for, or otherwise give, provide, or assist in the provision of, alcoholic beverages to another person when he knows or has reason to know that person is less than 21 years of age. The court may in addition suspend the offender's driver's license for up to one year, and the beverages are subject to forfeiture as contraband. That knowledge element — knows or has reason to know — is the contested issue in most of these cases, and it is exactly why you should not be filling in the Commonwealth's proof for them by talking about it.

I cannot tell you whether you will be convicted, and I am not going to guess at a sentence.

What you can do

1. Stop discussing the facts with anyone but a lawyer — no texts, no social media, no explaining yourself to the officer who called you. 2. Get the actual charging documents from the clerk of the general district court. Find out precisely what you are charged with and under which code sections. Littering is a separate charge from the alcohol offense and is handled on its own terms. 3. Get a lawyer before your first appearance. If you cannot afford one, tell the court at the earliest opportunity and ask for appointed counsel — do not wait until the day of. 4. Ask counsel specifically about the deferral in Va. Code sec. 4.1-305(F), and about its consequence in any later proceeding, before you agree to anything. 5. Prepare for a license suspension of six months to a year on the possession charge, and up to a year on the furnishing charge. Arrange transportation to school or work now. 6. If a treatment or education program is likely to be a condition, ask whether starting one early helps you. Bring proof of anything you complete. 7. Do not miss the court date. That converts a manageable case into a warrant.