Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

Re: Out of State Wreckless Driving

You can have an attorney send a letter of representation to the court and then appear at your trial. The consequences can be very severe. Reckless is a class 1 misdemeanor which carries up to a year in jail. Depending on which city or county you got the ticket in, jail time is a real possibility.

Re: Out of State Wreckless Driving

You definitely do not want to "no show." As to the original date, the judge might not require you to be there if an attorney does. If an attorney appears for you and explains that you are out of state, this will probably work. An attorney should advise the prosecutor ahead of time of this course of action so there are no surprises. It is possible that the judge will not like the defendant not being present and could even issue an arrest warrant, but most likely would either accept the appearance of the attorney alone or else would give another date for you to show up. In any event, the result would be the same: You just show up at another date. This depends to some extent on what County it is in, whether it is a laid-back or uptight County.

What County was it in? This system does not show whether attorneys are near enough to help. However, if it is near, I could help at a modest $95 per hou.

Reckless driving is a Class 1 misdemeanor, with potential jail time up to 1 year. In Virginia, practically everything is reckless driving, even passing on the crest of a hill or passing at a bend in the road. (Welcome to Virginia, the friendly State.)

However, if your driving record is reasonably clean, it is very likely that you would receive at worst a suspended sentence. That is, perhaps a fine of a few hundred dollars (possibly $500), and perhaps even some SUSPENDED jail time. That means it is fictitious. If you don't get convicted of anything else within 6 months or a year (whatever the judge says) then the suspended sentence would vanish.

However, if you were to "no show" the judge could impose a far worse penalty.

Of course the best thing to do is to beat the charges. However, if the policeman clocked you at 100 (actually anything over 80) then this seems unlikely. But whether you have some defense should explored.

Jon Moseley (703) 299-9088