On the news this morning, there was a story about a guy who got out of a ticket for passing a stopped school bus because the law did not have the proper verbiage. He is apparently the first person who had a lawyer challenge the wording of the law in the Commonwealth, which brought up a question: Since the law itself is badly written, and there has now been a court case where the person was found not guilty because of the poorly written law; What happens to all of the people who had tickets prior to this case, and paid them? Is Virginia going to soon have a run of people on the various counties wanting refunds?
Link to the story
I don’t believe it really works that way (retroactive refunds). Let’s say they pass a law that says that passing a school bus is now legal. That doesn’t change the fact that at one point it was illegal.
I believe that all it means is that until they ‘fix’ the language anyone can successfully challenge it, which means that cops won’t be writing any tickets until the law gets fixed.
IANAL… but one will be along soon to correct me if I am wrong.
So, in VA, it is against the law to “fail to stop…a school bus which is stopped.” Seems like an easy law to follow.
I know in criminal cases, if deficencies such as the OP stated are found and it leads to the overturning of one conviction it can give give grounds for other similiarly convicted to appeal.
This doesn’t mean they will get their appeal or that they will have their convictions overturned, but just that they can go ahead and file an appeal and get it heard.
I imagne in a small case like a ticket, it wouldn’t apply as in a criminal case where there is a serious loss of liberty involved
I meet a school bus at the same intersection nearly every morning on my way to work. I think I may have to flag them down tomorrow.
What to do with a stopped school bus? 
This decision has no precedential effect.
And probably no retroactive effect.
Well, yes, because it doesn’t set a precedent, we cannot say, “The law in Virginia is that drivers must stop a stopped bus.” We cannot, then, entertain anyone else seeking to void their conviction.