Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

I received a ticket for an expired registration. (We were completely unaware that it had expired because we never received a renewal from DMV, due to my husband being military and DMV sending the renewal to the wrong address, despite the fact that my husband went into the DMV personally to update our address.) The problem is that we had a family emergency come up and had to leave town suddenly and I missed the court date. I was found guilty, but I have submitted an appeal and I now have another court date. I am wondering if this is a waste of time and I will still be found guilty and end up paying more fees? The officer who originally gave me the ticket said that all I had to do was go to court and show the new registration and the ticket would have been dismissed. I'm nervous because I've never had a ticket before for anything and I really want to know what's going to happen when I go to appeals court.


Asked on 6/23/10, 11:01 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Erin Ranney Erin L. T. Ranney, PLLC

You were found guilty previously because you were not present. You have two choices in front of you now. You can continue with the appeal, go to court, present your evidence (or do so with the aid of an attorney who can do the talking for you) and ask the court to dismiss the infraction with minimal court costs. If you do that, and the judge agrees, the matter would not be on your traffic record and you would pay only the court costs associated with a matter that is "dismissed as complied". Or you could withdraw you appeal and have the offense on your traffic record, pay the fines and costs that the General District Court previously levied. You could still be convicted in the appeal but that is a risk you run. An attorney could help you to decide how big a risk it is and with the nervousness if you are really anxious!

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Answered on 6/23/10, 2:15 pm


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