Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

Complicated driving license/lerner's permit related Q

A little background: I held my first driving license in VA between 2000 it expired Nov. 2003. I did try to renew it September 2004 (in the mean time was out of the country or using publick transport), when at the DMV in Alexandria, VA they asked me to take the test exams. After I took them successfully they gave me a permit. On the question why are they giving me a permit, they responded that they do not show any record of my previous driving license. Since then I have been driving with that lerner's permit until January 2005 when the truck of a friend of mine was broken into and my purce stollen from there with my driver's permit. At the end of March I got stopped by an officer for expired tags and when I had not a document to show him - he checked into his system and did not see that I held any document at the moment. He did see my previous driving license though. So now I am charged with operating a vehicle withouth an operator's license.

After this incident - I went to check with DMV and they transformed my Lerner's PErmit to a driver's license after a ROAD TEST! Well, once again they did not saw a presence of a previosly held driving license.

Any ideas what route should I take?The liability with this charge - 6mo jail :-0


Asked on 4/11/05, 3:04 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Complicated driving license/lerner's permit related Q

You do not indicate whether you had a licensed person with you in the vehicle when you were stopped by the officer. If not, but you did have a valid Learner's Permit, the most you could be charged with is operating a vehicle contrary to the conditions of the permit which is probably an infraction as opposed to the more serious No Operator License (NOL)charge, which is a Class 2 misdemeanor.

All that you need to bring for your day in court is a DMV copy of the permit(or some official indication of its existence)which you were apparently issued in September, 2004, in order to

defeat the NOL charge. However, you may still have to plead guilty to the charge of operating a vehicle in violation of the conditions of the permit if you were required to have a licensed driver in the vehicle with you and such a person

was not in the vehicle when you were stopped.

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Answered on 4/11/05, 3:38 pm


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