Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a lawyer. You can lose your license or even get jail time for a reckless. I own a sports car and all the people in this area know to avoid a lead foot in VA -- 15-over is a reckless charge, unlike MD where it's 30 over.

I got a reckless about 15 years ago and lost my license for a month when I showed up in court, representing myself.

But I was going 13 over.

Anything over 80 is reckless driving in the commonwealth!

Yes, and you need to work on your remorse for court. The "I see other people going faster" defense won't help.

A good prosecutor will always nail you with that claim. If you testify that "I was only keeping up with traffic", etc., it's an easy followup to ask "Well, then, if they were going 75 mph would you say that you were, too?" (or a variant of that). Selective enforcement claims won't work in those cases, they don't have to cite the "most guilty" one, just a guilty one.

In VA, "reckless" is 20 mph over the limit, or 80 mph or over, regardless of the limit. The citing officer has discretion on whether to charge reckless or not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get a lawyer. You can lose your license or even get jail time for a reckless. I own a sports car and all the people in this area know to avoid a lead foot in VA -- 15-over is a reckless charge, unlike MD where it's 30 over.

I got a reckless about 15 years ago and lost my license for a month when I showed up in court, representing myself.

But I was going 13 over.

Anything over 80 is reckless driving in the commonwealth!

Yes, and you need to work on your remorse for court. The "I see other people going faster" defense won't help.

Anonymous wrote:Go to court. You will get no leniency if you don't show up. Just don't bother with the attorney.

Have to laugh at the certitude of such ignorance ... I spent a lot of time doing traffic court defense in my early career (public defender so no big fee for me or from my clients).

There were times when the judge, the prosecutor and the cop might get to a similar result for a defendant as they'd get with an advocate (attorney). But there were numerous times where, for one reason or another, they were not going to volunteer for a defendant a strategy or issue that could mitigate or be a defense to the charge.

You may not always need an attorney for a minor violation but given the cost of penalties, insurance surcharges, etc., you roll the dice. For example, how many of those people rolling through traffic court pleading guilty to things like stop sign violations, etc., and getting what sounds like a good deal to you (modest fine, etc.), know that there is a parallel provision in the county code in some jurisdictions?

If you get the charge reduced from "failure to stop at a stop sign" or "exceeding speed limit" (state statute) to "failure to obey a traffic sign" or speeding or "failure to give full time & attention to driving" (county code) you have just converted the charge to something with no points on your license.

But sure, right ... don't bother with the attorney. They won't help you, that nice prosecutor will tell you all you need to know about how to do the best you can in your case.

Op, don't hire a lawyer. The ticket & court costs are expensive enough without the added fees for a lawyer. Lots of lawyers on this thread I suspect.

Do you have a good driving record? If so request a copy from the DMV before your court date and BRING IT TO COURT. Get it as close to your court date as possible so it's current and then show it to the judge or whoever you see about your ticket. If you have a good driving record, and you can obtain a copy to prove it, you might get it dropped or at least reduced.

Anonymous wrote:It happened to me but I pulled over and waited for the cop. I totally admitted to speeding. The judge reduced everything since i did that. I ended up with a large fine.

Did the same last week when pulled over on Rt. 50 while driving at 69 mph in a 45 mph zone.
Cop gave me the ticket but said that he was not giving me the reckless driving one.

I am confused. Isn't it automatically a reckless driving offense when you go 20 over the posted speed limit?

Anonymous wrote:Go to court. You will get no leniency if you don't show up. Just don't bother with the attorney.

Horrible advise. You need an attorney. And no. I am not an attorney.

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I forgot to say that the judge was really helpful and friendly and the cop that pulled me over was there and he helped me out by saying that I was courteous when I was stopped. All in all, a nice experience. Plus, the entertainment value of all the people who had hired lawyers, just to stand there and say the same thing was pretty sweet!

You should be thankful you got a nice cop and nice judge. That isn't always the case.

Go to court. You will get no leniency if you don't show up. Just don't bother with the attorney.

OP again. Just talked to a clerk at the district court office. She told me that if I could not appear in court I could either hire an attorney to represent me or I could write a letter to the judge explaining why I can't be there. Anyone done either of those things? Just curious. . .

Anonymous wrote:Hi op. A year ago I got pulled over in North Carolina for a very similar speeding ticket. I think I was going 81 when I should have been going 65 or 70. I had to show up for court in the small town in NC where I got pulled over. They reduced the speed on my ticket and I had to pay a fine and court costs. It ended up being $200-$300. It was my first ticket ever and I was pretty upset. Major inconvenience too, bc like you, the place I had to go for court was like 4 hours away from my house. I didn't get a lawyer, and I went in hoping they'd drop it since I'd never had a single ticket or anything like that in my life, but nope. I had to pay. I also got a crapload of letters from lawyers, but I threw them all in the fire when I went camping that summer. I also felt it was some kind of racket and no way in hell am I paying a lawyer to take care of it for me.

Lesson learned for me though, while I never have been one to speed or run through red lights, I'm a lot less distracted, and a lot more careful these days. Especially when I'm out of state! Good luck op, and big hugs!

A very similar thing happened to me in Delaware. I was coming back from the beach, all tired and dying to get back home, and went 46 miles in 25 limit. I didn't even see the cop after me, until another one cut me of. I was sober too Anyway, I went to the court, no lawyer, talked with the cop before the hearing, and he reduced the overage. I ended up paying a ticket and court costs. Stressful it was, I must admit.

Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Just talked to an attorney and he was surprised the officer didn't knock it down to just a speeding ticket for me. Then he asked me if it was "__" officer and I said yes. I guess the guy is notorious. Anyway, I'm less worried now since the attorney said for something like this, it is very highly likely that I would get it dropped to a lesser charge. Whew!

Wow. Amazing that the attorney could guess the name of the officer.

Of course the attorney knew the name of the officer. Most counties are small and the blood sucking traffic attorneys see the officers all the time. They all sit together waiting for their cases. They don't sit with their clients, they sit up front and joke around with the cops. Everyone is making money off of you if you are naive enough to hire one of those guys. Just wait until your court date and you will see what I mean.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Just talked to an attorney and he was surprised the officer didn't knock it down to just a speeding ticket for me. Then he asked me if it was "__" officer and I said yes. I guess the guy is notorious. Anyway, I'm less worried now since the attorney said for something like this, it is very highly likely that I would get it dropped to a lesser charge. Whew!

Wow. Amazing that the attorney could guess the name of the officer.

PP here. I forgot to say that the judge was really helpful and friendly and the cop that pulled me over was there and he helped me out by saying that I was courteous when I was stopped. All in all, a nice experience. Plus, the entertainment value of all the people who had hired lawyers, just to stand there and say the same thing was pretty sweet!

OP here. Just talked to an attorney and he was surprised the officer didn't knock it down to just a speeding ticket for me. Then he asked me if it was "__" officer and I said yes. I guess the guy is notorious. Anyway, I'm less worried now since the attorney said for something like this, it is very highly likely that I would get it dropped to a lesser charge. Whew!