So. . .got pulled over for speeding in VA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will reckless MD drivers/criminals learn: VA enforces the law! VA has standards for society and it expects people to abide! Stay out of VA!

Where did anyone say they were from MD?

[Anonymous]

This happened to me like 8-9 years ago in Arlington. I think I was going about 83-84. I lived there, so it was easy enough for me to appear. I didn't need a lawyer. The cop who pulled me over was there along with a bunch of other cops and the prosecutors. You meet up with your cop, then meet the prosecutor in a little room before court starts and negotiate with him. I asked him to just knock off the reckless driving charge and I'd pay the fine and have some points. He said fine. Then we went into the courtroom and I waited about an hour for my case to be called, and the judge rubber stamped our agreement. Full disclosure, I am a lawyer, but not this kind of lawyer. I didn't know the process or the people involved. But I don't think having a lawyer would have saved me any money.

I might have done differently if it was in some remote county where they might want to make an example of me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will reckless MD drivers/criminals learn: VA enforces the law! VA has standards for society and it expects people to abide! Stay out of VA!

Where did anyone say they were from MD?

I see MDers getting pulled over all the time in VA. MD doesn't have traffic laws so when the MDers come to VA for their jobs they forget to drive like sane people.

[Anonymous]

http://jalopnik.com/never-speed-in-virginia-lessons-from-my-three-days-in-1613604053

I know so many people who have paid their time by going to jail on the weekends. The writer in this piece only got the weekend, which was a pretty sweet deal. A co-worker got 1 month, but the judge was "nice" since he's the single provider for his family (wife is a SAHM to their SN son) and let him serve his days by doing Fri-Sun in jail. Another friend's daughter got reckless for doing 80 in a 70 on her way back to college. They went in with a lawyer and she fared much better with a hefty fine and points on her license plus being sentenced to two driving classes. It helped that she had a clean driving record and wasn't going over 80.

I remember when my brother was a teen and got reckless for swerving to miss a deer and ran off the road. There was no damage to his car or any property and he wasn't speeding, but a policeman had been following a few cars back and pulled over and ticketed him. Yeah, that's reckless in VA. Going off the road, even with no damage and not speeding. My parents didn't really realize how serious it was and kind of did an *eyeroll* small town VA police thing. The judge ended up suspending his license for 6 months and he had to take a driving course that was extremely hard to get into. He was on a waiting list for months even to get into the class. A friend (laywer) told us afterwards that we should have just asked him to accompany us because judges go harder on teen boys but tend to ease up if they have representation. Lesson learned. Lawyer up for your son.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will reckless MD drivers/criminals learn: VA enforces the law! VA has standards for society and it expects people to abide! Stay out of VA!

Where did anyone say they were from MD?

I see MDers getting pulled over all the time in VA. MD doesn't have traffic laws so when the MDers come to VA for their jobs they forget to drive like sane people.

Yes, well on the other side of town, I see a ton of VA and DC plates being pulled over all the time. I also see quite a lot of VA drivers on the cell phones in MD so they could be pulled over for that since it is now explicitly illegal to talk on a hand-held cell phone in MD while driving.

MD does have traffic laws, but VA drivers don't seem to know them any better than MD drivers know VA traffic laws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm resurrecting an old thread because DS just got charged with exactly the same speed for reckless driving in VA, 83 mph in a 70 mph zone. (anything over 80 in Virginia is reckless driving) Not responsible and possibly not safe, but I was shocked it was a crime, until he started getting letter from lawyers wanting to represent him.

Just curious if OP is still on here what the results were. I was skeptical about spending the money (or his money) on an attorney, but it looks like the best route. Grrrrr. I'm mad both at him and the inflexibility of the law in making this a Class 1 misdemeanor, same as DUI, shoplifting and domestic violence.

Any other advice not imparted in this thread would be appreciated. I am telling him to sign up for a driver improvement class before the court date.

OP of original thread here. I ended up hiring a local lawyer (Winchester area) who charged me a flat fee of $500 and got the charge reduced. I paid a $120 (I think) fee and that was that. I got two points put on my record, which could have been dropped to one point if I had gone to driving school. I don't have any other tickets on my record.

It was worth it to me to hire the lawyer to take care of everything because it was so far away, and the guy I hired specialized in these reckless driving charges and knew everyone. He even told me that the cop who gave me the citation is notorious for handing out reckless driving charges (also told me because of the speed I was going, it was up to the officer's discretion whether or not to give me reckless driving or just regular old speeding-asshole!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will reckless MD drivers/criminals learn: VA enforces the law! VA has standards for society and it expects people to abide! Stay out of VA!

Where did anyone say they were from MD?

I see MDers getting pulled over all the time in VA. MD doesn't have traffic laws so when the MDers come to VA for their jobs they forget to drive like sane people.

Yes, well on the other side of town, I see a ton of VA and DC plates being pulled over all the time. I also see quite a lot of VA drivers on the cell phones in MD so they could be pulled over for that since it is now explicitly illegal to talk on a hand-held cell phone in MD while driving.

MD does have traffic laws, but VA drivers don't seem to know them any better than MD drivers know VA traffic laws.

Sorry, but MD is home to the worst drivers in the United States, and possibly the world. I wish they would stay in MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When will reckless MD drivers/criminals learn: VA enforces the law! VA has standards for society and it expects people to abide! Stay out of VA!

Where did anyone say they were from MD?

I see MDers getting pulled over all the time in VA. MD doesn't have traffic laws so when the MDers come to VA for their jobs they forget to drive like sane people.

Yes, well on the other side of town, I see a ton of VA and DC plates being pulled over all the time. I also see quite a lot of VA drivers on the cell phones in MD so they could be pulled over for that since it is now explicitly illegal to talk on a hand-held cell phone in MD while driving.

MD does have traffic laws, but VA drivers don't seem to know them any better than MD drivers know VA traffic laws.

Sorry, but MD is home to the worst drivers in the United States, and possibly the world. I wish they would stay in MD.

Not according to this comparison:
http://www.carinsurancecomparison.com/which-states-have-the-worst-drivers/#Table2015

MD ranked #34 of worst drivers by state
DC ranked #37
VA ranked #46

Inverting,
VA had the 6th best drivers by state
DC had the 15th best drivers by state
MD had 18th best drivers by state

out of 51 "states"

Interestingly:
Fatalities per 100K vehicles: VA ranked 38th worst, MD ranked 45th, DC ranked 51st (best)
Failure to obey traffic signals: VA ranked 50th, MD ranked 51st, the two best jurisdictions in the nation for obeying traffic signals. DC ranked 27th worst.
Drunk driving: VA is 7th worst and MD is 10th worst in the nation, DC is 44th (or 7th best)
Speeding: DC is 4th worst, MD ranked 24th in the nation, VA ranked 47th in the nation (maybe the 80=reckless is helping here?)
Careless driving: MD ranked 14th in the nation, DC ranked 22nd, VA ranked 48

Some good, some bad, but there are many states that rate worse than any DMV drivers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the best course of action?

Pay your debt to society.

[Anonymous]

Not going to quote 10:51, but MD also has VERY high insurance rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm resurrecting an old thread because DS just got charged with exactly the same speed for reckless driving in VA, 83 mph in a 70 mph zone. (anything over 80 in Virginia is reckless driving) Not responsible and possibly not safe, but I was shocked it was a crime, until he started getting letter from lawyers wanting to represent him.

Just curious if OP is still on here what the results were. I was skeptical about spending the money (or his money) on an attorney, but it looks like the best route. Grrrrr. I'm mad both at him and the inflexibility of the law in making this a Class 1 misdemeanor, same as DUI, shoplifting and domestic violence.

Any other advice not imparted in this thread would be appreciated. I am telling him to sign up for a driver improvement class before the court date.

OP of original thread here. I ended up hiring a local lawyer (Winchester area) who charged me a flat fee of $500 and got the charge reduced. I paid a $120 (I think) fee and that was that. I got two points put on my record, which could have been dropped to one point if I had gone to driving school. I don't have any other tickets on my record.

It was worth it to me to hire the lawyer to take care of everything because it was so far away, and the guy I hired specialized in these reckless driving charges and knew everyone. He even told me that the cop who gave me the citation is notorious for handing out reckless driving charges (also told me because of the speed I was going, it was up to the officer's discretion whether or not to give me reckless driving or just regular old speeding-asshole!)

You are so gullible! This lawyer gives everyone the exact same spiel about the cop blah blah. He's just kissing your ass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm resurrecting an old thread because DS just got charged with exactly the same speed for reckless driving in VA, 83 mph in a 70 mph zone. (anything over 80 in Virginia is reckless driving) Not responsible and possibly not safe, but I was shocked it was a crime, until he started getting letter from lawyers wanting to represent him.

Just curious if OP is still on here what the results were. I was skeptical about spending the money (or his money) on an attorney, but it looks like the best route. Grrrrr. I'm mad both at him and the inflexibility of the law in making this a Class 1 misdemeanor, same as DUI, shoplifting and domestic violence.

Any other advice not imparted in this thread would be appreciated. I am telling him to sign up for a driver improvement class before the court date.

OP of original thread here. I ended up hiring a local lawyer (Winchester area) who charged me a flat fee of $500 and got the charge reduced. I paid a $120 (I think) fee and that was that. I got two points put on my record, which could have been dropped to one point if I had gone to driving school. I don't have any other tickets on my record.

It was worth it to me to hire the lawyer to take care of everything because it was so far away, and the guy I hired specialized in these reckless driving charges and knew everyone. He even told me that the cop who gave me the citation is notorious for handing out reckless driving charges (also told me because of the speed I was going, it was up to the officer's discretion whether or not to give me reckless driving or just regular old speeding-asshole!)

Thanks for coming back, OP. I'm the one who started the thread up again. This was in Amherst County in central Virginia, apparently notorious for speed traps. I'm talking to a second lawyer tomorrow and then choosing one of them. Both are in the county, and the second specializes in college students! The first only charges $325, which would be great, but I'm concerned it's one of those you get what you pay for things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not going to quote 10:51, but MD also has VERY high insurance rates.

Insurance rates aren't just about driver behavior. They also are about incidents of theft, vandalism etc. that occur while the car is not being driven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not going to quote 10:51, but MD also has VERY high insurance rates.

Insurance rates aren't just about driver behavior. They also are about incidents of theft, vandalism etc. that occur while the car is not being driven.

Good point. Parking your car in MD is far more likely to result in vandalism or theft than parking it in VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm resurrecting an old thread because DS just got charged with exactly the same speed for reckless driving in VA, 83 mph in a 70 mph zone. (anything over 80 in Virginia is reckless driving) Not responsible and possibly not safe, but I was shocked it was a crime, until he started getting letter from lawyers wanting to represent him.

Just curious if OP is still on here what the results were. I was skeptical about spending the money (or his money) on an attorney, but it looks like the best route. Grrrrr. I'm mad both at him and the inflexibility of the law in making this a Class 1 misdemeanor, same as DUI, shoplifting and domestic violence.

Any other advice not imparted in this thread would be appreciated. I am telling him to sign up for a driver improvement class before the court date.

OP of original thread here. I ended up hiring a local lawyer (Winchester area) who charged me a flat fee of $500 and got the charge reduced. I paid a $120 (I think) fee and that was that. I got two points put on my record, which could have been dropped to one point if I had gone to driving school. I don't have any other tickets on my record.

It was worth it to me to hire the lawyer to take care of everything because it was so far away, and the guy I hired specialized in these reckless driving charges and knew everyone. He even told me that the cop who gave me the citation is notorious for handing out reckless driving charges (also told me because of the speed I was going, it was up to the officer's discretion whether or not to give me reckless driving or just regular old speeding-asshole!)

Thanks for coming back, OP. I'm the one who started the thread up again. This was in Amherst County in central Virginia, apparently notorious for speed traps. I'm talking to a second lawyer tomorrow and then choosing one of them. Both are in the county, and the second specializes in college students! The first only charges $325, which would be great, but I'm concerned it's one of those you get what you pay for things.

You'll find most lawyers will charge about the same in any given community for this. Unless you are outrageously special this is a commodity not a skill based thing.