Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

Re: Reckless speeding in VA 80/55

NO, NO, NO! Do not plead guilty. I assume that you were charged with reckless driving. Going more than 20 miles over the speed limit is reckless driving. So is going over 80, but that doesn't apply.

Reckless driving is a CRIME. It is a misdemeanor. If you plead guilty you will have a CRIMINAL record.

Therefore, it is certainly worth hiring a local attorney. Those who work in this area of traffic defense should be reasonably priced and worth the cost in not carrying a criminal record.

The issue of the calibration and such inaccuracies will go to the question of whether the trooper is certain that you were going 80. It's possible you could be going only 75 or 74. That's why the prosecutor might cut you a deal and call it 74, a serious traffic ticket with hefty fine, and drop the reckless driving charge... because he can't be exactly sure.

Your strong driving record is extremely important in persuading the prosecutor to do this, and also persuading the judge to accept it.

The process is to approach the prosecutor the day of your court date and POLITELY propose a deal (this isn't the time to argue). Request a copy of your driving record from the DMV and have it in hand, with you. Show it to the prosecutor. You could even try taking a driver's ed course between now and then to improve your score even further. (But it sounds like you will have the best possible score already if you've had no accidents in 10-15 years.)

Tell him you would accept a hefty fine for going 74 in a 55 MPH zone, but you don't believe you were going faster than that and you would have to go through a whole trial otherwise.

If you go to trial and lose, immediately go to the Clerk's office and fill out an APPEAL. You then get a WHOLE NEW TRIAL in Circuit Court, like the first trial never even happened. Almost nobody takes advantage of this. This will, again, be another opportunity for you to bargain with the prosecutor instead of the pain in the neck of going through a Circuit Court trial.

All of this would go much better with a LOCAL attorney from that city or County. If you are having trouble finding one, try calling the Clerk's office of the general district court and ask which attorneys appear frequently in traffic court and/or criminal defense. If that doesn't help, you could try going to the court on a date as soon as possible when such cases are being heard (ask the Clerk's office) and walk around and look for the attorneys.

Those who do a lot of these types of cases will probably be reasonably-priced. If you approach an attorney who does not do a lot of these, he or she will not be familiar with the procedure and will charge more because they will think it will be difficult. Those who do it a lot will have it down to a mass production assembly line, and charge less.