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Virginia Law Does Not Prohibit Mounting Your Motorcycle License Plate Vertically

By Matt Danielson

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion in Virginia concerning vertically mounted license plates. I have come across countless motorcyclists, police officers, troopers and motor vehicle inspectors who firmly believe that if you mount your motorcycle license plate vertically as opposed to horizontally that you are in violation of Virginia law. That is simply a myth.

Code Section 46.2-716 of the Code of Virginia, 1950 as amended reads as follows:

A. Every license plate shall be securely fastened to the motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer to which it is assigned:

1. So as to prevent the plate from swinging, 2. In a position to be clearly visible, and 3. In a condition to be clearly legible.

B. No colored glass, colored plastic, bracket, holder, mounting, frame, or any other type of covering shall be placed, mounted, or installed on, around, or over any license plate if such glass, plastic, bracket, holder, mounting, frame, or other type of covering in any way alters or obscures (i) the alpha-numeric information, (ii) the color of the license plate, (iii) the name or abbreviated name of the state wherein the vehicle is registered, or (iv) any character or characters, decal, stamp, or other device indicating the month or year in which the vehicle's registration expires. No insignia, emblems, or trailer hitches or couplings shall be mounted in such a way as to hide or obscure any portion of the license plate or render any portion of the license plate illegible.

C. The Superintendent may make such regulations as he may deem advisable to enforce the proper mounting and securing of the license plate on the vehicle.

Notice that nothing in the code states that the license plate must be mounted horizontally. It must be clearly visible and clearly legible. Mounting your license plate vertically violates neither of these standards.

For anyone who is still skeptical lets do an experiment. Take a pad of paper and write VCOM-1 across the page. Now rotate the pad 90 degrees to the right. Are the words clearly visible? Is it clearly legible? If your answer to either of those is no it is time to see the optometrist. Of course you can still read what you have written. I have used this experiment numerous times defending motorcyclists who have been charged for a vertically mounted license plate and have yet to have anyone convicted. I did have a trooper in Chesterfield County testify that he had to turn his head sideways in order to read the plate. However that provided more humor for the courtroom than it did evidence against my client.

Now keep in mind that when you start putting license plate covers on your tag, or start bending or molding the plate to form fit a custom bracket you may be violating the law. The license plate must be clearly visible and legible from the rear. If a cover obscures it in any way, or you have a curved bracket that makes it difficult for an officer to read the first or last characters of the tag due to the curvature of the plate then you are in violation of the law. However, simply mounting your Virginia license plate vertically on your motorcycle is perfectly legal.

In closing, if you do mount your license plate vertically and receive a citation for doing so, please feel free to contact me at 1-800-321-8968 or matt@motorcyclelawgroup.com. Our office will be more than happy to represent you free of charge.

Matt Danielson
Tom McGrath's Motorcycle Law Group
1-800-321-8968
matt@motorcyclelawgroup.com

The preceding is for informational purposes only. The laws governing the above may be different in your state.

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