Reckless driving charge in VA

What is the name of your state? NC

I was returning home from Maryland on I-95, it was pretty early in the morning and my fiance' and I were discussing the events of the weekend. My mind was not on driving, but on the things that were going on this weekend and all the work I needed to take care of back home. I was keeping pace with the car ahead of me, then I ran up on a state trooper and looked at my speedometer. The trooper clocked us both at 81/65. This is truly not my normal driving pattern, I am usually very cautios of my surroundings, I assumed that the car ahead of me was just keeping with the flow of traffic. It has been tough to find a lawyer, while out of state. Just a few questions: (please no smart answers, just opinions learned from experience)

1. Do I have to obtain a lawyer, or can I take my clean driving record to the prosecutor before court and try to get a reduction?

2. I know some counties have prosecutors that won't meet with defendants, does anyone know if Prince William County if one of them?

3. Has anyone on this board gone through a similar case?

teetee27 said:

What is the name of your state? NC

I was returning home from Maryland on I-95, it was pretty early in the morning and my fiance' and I were discussing the events of the weekend. My mind was not on driving, but on the things that were going on this weekend and all the work I needed to take care of back home. I was keeping pace with the car ahead of me, then I ran up on a state trooper and looked at my speedometer. The trooper clocked us both at 81/65. This is truly not my normal driving pattern, I am usually very cautios of my surroundings, I assumed that the car ahead of me was just keeping with the flow of traffic. It has been tough to find a lawyer, while out of state. Just a few questions: (please no smart answers, just opinions learned from experience)

1. Do I have to obtain a lawyer, or can I take my clean driving record to the prosecutor before court and try to get a reduction?

2. I know some counties have prosecutors that won't meet with defendants, does anyone know if Prince William County if one of them?

3. Has anyone on this board gone through a similar case?

Click to expand...

**A: since you do not want smart answers, I will bid you farewell and good luck.

Normally VA does not issue a reckless violation unless you are traveling at least 20mph over the limit so there must be more to the story.

If you appear for court they will usually reduce the violation and the fine to speeding. NC does not assess points for out of state speeding tickets but it will show for insurance purposes.

Difficult to get reduced

Iwpat is correct. In most states including VA, reckless can only be related to speed at 20 over the set limit. I imagine here though the officer may testify he cited you for reckless based on inattentiveness as it sounds like you may have come up on him too quickly. This is just one of those areas where officers can cite based on their opinion vice the law because so many movements could be considered reckless depending on the persons viewpoint. A co-worker of mine was cited because his tires broke ground in loose gravel. Unfortunately I think most people would agree that driving inattentively is a bit reckless and often not wreckless. You are also in the commonwealth of VA. Though I don't know why, I have often heard that in a communistwealth judges and police have a bit more leeway legally to prosecute. I was pretty disgusted with the behavior and attitude of VA police while I was there. Most of them came acrossed as a big disgrace to the badge and uniform. My advice is try to get it reduced, because I think a reckless charge is just as detrimental to your insurance rates as DUI, and I think requires you to file an SR form. However, you did admit being inattentive and thus guilty.

I understand that officers usually don't give out tickets for going more than 20 over the speed limit, however, in VA it also says that going in excess of 80 is considered reckless driving as well. The strange thing is that when the officer stopped me he said I was going 81 in a 60, however on the ticket is has 81/65. The speed limit on I-95 is 65. I'm a little confused as to why is said 60 but put 65 on my ticket.

I also realize that I was not paying close attention to my speed, however we all make mistakes, and for that I apologize. So should I take a copy of my driving record and try to get it reduced with the prosecutor, or should I obtain a lawyer. The cheapest lawyer I have talked to is asking for $850.00, with no guarantee of the outcome.

teetee27 said:

What is the name of your state? NC

I was returning home from Maryland on I-95, it was pretty early in the morning and my fiance' and I were discussing the events of the weekend. My mind was not on driving, but on the things that were going on this weekend and all the work I needed to take care of back home. I was keeping pace with the car ahead of me, then I ran up on a state trooper and looked at my speedometer. The trooper clocked us both at 81/65. This is truly not my normal driving pattern, I am usually very cautios of my surroundings, I assumed that the car ahead of me was just keeping with the flow of traffic. It has been tough to find a lawyer, while out of state. Just a few questions: (please no smart answers, just opinions learned from experience)

1. Do I have to obtain a lawyer, or can I take my clean driving record to the prosecutor before court and try to get a reduction?

2. I know some counties have prosecutors that won't meet with defendants, does anyone know if Prince William County if one of them?

3. Has anyone on this board gone through a similar case?

Click to expand...

I was caught in Virginia (the Dulles Toll Road) doing 81 in a 55.

Here is what I did:
1.) Got my car tested for calibration on the speedometer. Car was off by 3 mph.
2.) Took a Defensive Driving School course before appering in court.
3.) Got a certified (Cant be non-certified, they wont trust it) copy of my Driving Record from the Maryland DMV
4.) About 20 minutes before the court started at 9 am the prosecutor appeared and I walked up to her and asked to speak to her. I showed her my calibration test, my drivers record (with a speeding ticket 3 years prior), and my completion and passing of the Defensive Driving school program (the same one people get forced to take by the Judge). I then told her that I would be willing to pay a higher fine if she dropped the charge from reckless driving to speeding. She agreed.
5.) Court started at 9:00 sharp. A couple other people that had reckless driving were ahead of me on the docet. Usually they got fined about $200-$250. I agreed to pay $350.
6.) My turn came up and I pleaded guilty and the prosecutor handed over the paperwork I gave her to the judge and said she was asking to reduce my sentence. The judge agreed and I walked out with a ticket for Speeding and a $350 hole in my pocket. It transfered to my maryland record and now I see it as "Speeding". There are no points associated to it. All is says is speeding and has no mph in the description.