Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

Re: 16 YO w/Reckless Charge from Single Car Accident

This is fairly serious. The best way to handle a reckless driving charge, usually, is to show your good driving record, if possible. Because your son has just started driving, he has no positive driving record stored up. Tehrefore, it may be hard to get the court and prosecutor to cut him slack.

I don't understand the cirucmstnces of the crash. Tehre may be good grounds to show that it was not reckless. Most RD charges are for speeding, and tehre is really no leeway. But in a crash situation, there may be changes to get this taken apart and knocked down.

You really should get a lawyer EXPERIENCED in these types of things, who migth be able to show, for example, that the police officer could not see what happened, that the other witnesses, if any, could not testify to what happened, etc.

You need to be fairly careful what the sister says about the crash. She may be the only witness other than the son.

It sounds to me like there will probably be no witnesses available to testify against your son to support the RD charge, but I am not sure without hearing all about it.

WHAT I WOULD RECOMMEND is that you go visit the same court NOW and watch other, similar cases. LOOK for attorneys who really seem to know what they are doing, especially if they are handling several cases on teh same day. Then go approach them and ask if they can take your case.

Attorneys who do this all the time are probably not as epxensive as you might fear. An attorney who does not know what he is doing will have to research everything from scratch and spend a lot of time figuring out what to do. But a lawyer who does this all the time will be able to do this with very little time invested.

Note that what your son tells you or his sister IS NOT PRIVILEGED and the state can force you and his sister to testify against your son.

Re: 16 YO w/Reckless Charge from Single Car Accident

Your son should be represented by an attorney since reckless driving in the Commonwealth is classified as a Class 1 misdemenaor and is a jailable offense. If you can't afford to hire a lawyer ask the court to appoint one to represent your son. (Since your son is a juvenile, your resources are evaluated rather than his in determining his eligibility for court-appointed counsel.)

And, yes, a driver improvement course taken by your son before the court proceedings can only help his case.(You can probably learn about the ones approved by the Virginia DMV by going to their website and following the links.)