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What is the Penalty for Virginia Reckless Driving? » Leavitt & Martin
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What is the Penalty for Virginia Reckless Driving?
Is Virginia Reckless Driving a Misdemeanor or a Felony?
Can I Got to Jail for Speeding? Do I need a Virginia reckless driving lawyer or speeding lawyer?
At Leavitt & Martin, we specialize in traffic work and we have handled thousands of reckless driving cases. We are Virginia traffic lawyers. I am familiar with Virginia Reckless Driving and its consequences. I copied all of the Virginia reckless driving laws in their entirety. As you can see, there are a number of reckless driving laws. There is an additional charge called “Improper Driving” and I will discuss that in more depth as well. In fact, there are at least 14 ways to drive recklessly in Virginia.
For now, I am going to cover the MAIN reckless driving laws. These are the laws that probably 99 percent of people are charged with. While Virginia reckless driving can be a felony it is ALMOST ALWAYS a misdemeanor.
Virginia reckless driving first offense and second offense both carry the same potential range of punishment, although the driving history often plays a role in the case. Also, out of state drivers can face additional consequences depending on the state they live in.
Virginia Reckless Driving by Speed, § 46.2-862. Exceeding speed limit.
This is the Most Commonly Written Reckless Driving Charge in Virginia
There are two ways to violate this law, and if you violate EITHER section you are technically guilty:
Driving IN EXCESS of 80 MPH: If you drive 81 mph in ANY speed zone it is technically reckless driving, even in a 70 mph zone. Therefore, you can get convicted of a misdemeanor for driving 11 mph over the limit. Note that 80 MPH is NOT reckless, unless you were in a 60 mph zone.
Driving 20 mph or MORE over the speed limit, regardless of the speed limit: Therefore 80 mph in a 60, 55 mph in a 35, etc are all reckless driving.
Penalty for Virginia Reckless Driving
Reckless driving is a charge where the consequences can be far reaching and unpredictable. The reason for this is that there are both DIRECT consequences, and INDIRECT consequences. Direct consequences are easy to figure out to the extent that there is a range of punishment. The judge may not exceed that range of punishment. And many cases are predictable.
However, reckless driving has many indirect consequences that may very well vary from state to state and individual to individual. These are much more difficult to foresee.
Direct Consequences of Virginia Reckless Driving:
Keep in mind that your case may very well qualify for a reduction or a dismissal but this guide right now deals with the consequences if you are found guilty. Reckless driving by speed in Virginia is classified as a class 1 criminal misdemeanor. That means that if you are found guilty, the following will happen:
you will face a jail sentence of 0-12 months
you will face a fine of $0-2500
you face the possibility of a license suspension up to six months
you will have a permanent criminal record that never goes away and can never be expunged
Again, most of my clients have their charges reduced or dismissed but I am providing the above information to answer the question of what happens if you are found guilty.
Indirect Consequences of a Conviction for Virginia Reckless Driving:
In addition to the above direct consequences, you may face some or all of the following indirect consequences:
Insurance: your insurance company may double or triple your insurance rates or worse, they may drop you from coverage
Employment: your company may fire you, withdraw a job offer, or otherwise penalize you. I have seen military careers derailed (issues with getting a top secret security clearance with a misdemeanor) and I have had people call me TEN YEARS after a conviction and tell me the misdemeanor is showing up on a background check and a job offer was withdrawn.
School: students, student athletes, and scholarship students may face additional issues because of the misdemeanors. My cousin is a college basketball coach and deals with these issues all the time. His school has a ZERO TOLERANCE policy with misdemeanors. In addition, you may have issues applying for GRADUATE SCHOOL with a misdemeanor.
Commercial drivers: Insurance companies and any company that hires drivers has a big issue with RECKLESS DRIVING. You can easily lose your job and become next to impossible to employ if you have a reckless driving charge.
Out of state drivers: Many states (including Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, etc) may SUSPEND your license in ADDITION to any license suspension Virginia imposes. We frequently get hired when people get notice of suspension letters in the mail. Sometimes we can help and sometimes it is too late. Even when we can help, our fee is a lot higher due to the nature of trying to REOPEN a case that was already heard in court.
Immigration issues: If you travel out of the country, or you are in the United States on a visa, work permit, Green Card, or you are a permanent resident then a misdemeanor can possibly impact you.
Virginia Reckless Driving: What Happens if I Get an Out of State Reckless Driving Charge? Will it Follow Me to My Home State?
There are really two issues here. One deals with the criminal record, and the other deals with the points/insurance/potential license suspension, etc.
Issue with Criminal Record for Virginia Reckless Driving
Because Virginia classifies this as a criminal misdemeanor, you will have a permanent criminal record that never goes away and can never be expunged IF YOU ARE FOUND GUILTY OF RECKLESS DRIVING BY SPEED IN VIRGINIA.
Virginia decides what is a misdemeanor and what is not. So if you live in a different state where it would not be a misdemeanor then it does not matter. Since Virginia treats it as a misdemeanor, you get a criminal record across all 50 states if you are convicted. If you are asked on a background check if you have a misdemeanor and you put NO, then be forewarned that it can show up as a misdemeanor and you may lose out on a job because you did not answer truthfully.
Example: Marijuana possession is legal in some cases in Colorado. If a Colorado resident goes to Virginia and possesses Marijuana it is a misdemeanor charge and if they get convicted they will have a permanent criminal record even though it is legal in their home state.
When you visit or enter a state, you are subject to their laws and ignorance of the law is not a defense.
2. Out of State Issue, Do the Virginia Reckless Driving Points Follow Me? How Will a Conviction Impact Me?
As noted above, the criminal record does follow you to all 50 states and it is permanent and can never be expunged. The points and the license suspension is different if you are out of state.
Your Consequences May be MORE SEVERE
Many states have an automatic suspension if you get convicted in any state for Reckless Driving. I have been retained after the fact by residents of Connecticut, Michigan, New Hampshire, Washington D.C., Washington state, and others where the conviction for reckless driving was reported and they faced an AUTOMATIC suspension.
2. How the Process Works for Out of State Drivers
You get a ticket, and you may or may not realize it’s for reckless driving. Sometimes the officers write “RD” on the ticket and many people think that stands for radar when it means reckless driving. So you don’t pay a lot of attention. The speed may have been fairly low, 81 mph up to 89 mph and maybe the officer tells you to just call a number and pay the ticket. So you call the number, you pay the ticket, and then BAM, you get a letter in the mail from your home state saying that YOUR LICENSE WILL BE SUSPENDED.
So here is how the process actually works:
you are found guilty of reckless driving in a court of law in Virginia
after 10-30 days from the date of conviction (usually the date on your ticket) the court will notify the Virginia DMV of the conviction
not long after your HOME state’s DMV will see the conviction for reckless driving
the DMV’s from all 50 states and Washington DC communicate with each other
there is a uniform RECKLESS DRIVING code that DMV administrators see
that code is what gets transmitted from Virginia to all 50 states
your HOME state then independently decides what to do
certain states AUTOMATICALLY suspend your license for reckless driving
if your state is one of those states, you will get a letter from the dmv notifying you about the suspension
YOU MAY BE ABLE TO FIX IT AND AVOID THE SUSPENSION but it depends on WHERE you got the ticket and WHEN the conviction happened
Even if your home state does not suspend your license, they will determine the number of points you get for reckless driving and how long those points stay on your record
in my experience reckless driving in all states is severe
Your insurance company at some later date will catch wind of the conviction and will independently determine what to do
in my experience on reckless driving they may DOUBLE, TRIPLE, or DROP you from coverage
they may only increase your rates and not triple them, but it will be up to your individual insurance company
Virginia Reckless Driving: What Should I Expect to Happen?
Answer: It depends, it really does. But let me give some helpful guidance.
Every judge is different, but here are some general guidelines, by far the three biggest factors for what will happen in your case are:
WHERE YOU GOT YOUR TICKET: this determines what judge will hear your case and whether the prosecutors get involved or not
WHAT SPEED YOU WERE GOING: every judge has their own framework for how they treat reckless driving by speed but there is often a significant difference between driving 81 mph in a 70 versus driving 105 mph in a 70
WHAT YOUR DRIVING RECORD LOOKS LIKE: judges and prosecutors will consider your prior driving history
they will consider any prior offense that shows up on your driving record
serious prior offenses carry more weight such as
while prior moving violations carry more weight, reduced speeding tickets carry the same weight as a prior speeding ticket
most judges and prosecutors will view “defective equipment” as a reduced speeding ticket when viewing the driving record
Your outcome will usually be driven by where you got the ticket, the speed you were cited for going, and what your driving record looks like. There is no excuse for speeding that the judge will accept as a legal defense usually. If you sit through traffic court you will hear the following excuses:
I was on my way to a funeral
There was a hurricane and I was evacuating
I had my cruise control on (some lower speed) and I did not realize I was going that fast
None of these reasons is a legal defense to speeding or reckless driving and the judges typically have a response because they hear them so frequently. Outside of a medical emergency that you can document there really is not a legal excuse for speeding or reckless driving.
As a general rule, the lower the speed your charge is for and the better driving record you have the better your chances are of getting a good result. That result may look like a dismissal or it may look like a reduction depending on where you got the ticket.
What Are Legal Defenses to Virginia Reckless Driving by Speed or Speeding?
At Leavitt & Martin, we have entered a plea of NOT GUILTY and won many cases for speeding and reckless driving by speed after a trial. Here are the most common legal defenses:
OFFICER’S RADAR/LIDAR CALIBRATION IS NOT PROPER
Officer clocks the wrong vehicle, or does not clock the correct vehicle
Officer makes a mistake on the ticket itself that results in a DISMISSAL
Virginia Reckless Driving Calibration issues: § 46.2-882. Determining speed with various devices; certificate as to accuracy of device; arrest without warrant.
Calibration issues deal with the officer’s calibration of his/her radar or lidar. Believe it or not, but many officers do not know the law regarding radar/lidar calibration. There is really good case law on what is required to mount a good defense in this area and MOST attorneys don’t know it. There are very few lawyers who have successfully tried these issues.
Example: I was in court and my client had a TERRIBLE driving record. The judge would never help nor would the prosecutor. In other words, my client was getting convicted 100 percent of the time UNLESS I could find a legal defense. I asked the Virginia State Police trooper to see his calibration certificate, pursuant to 46.2-882.
As he looked for it, he (sarcastically) told me how I was a good lawyer because most lawyers don’t check them. So I reviewed it and I found a legal defense. I knew he could not fix it so I told him I had found an issue and then I left him there. I noticed him scrutinizing the calibration report but he could not find the issue.
I entered a plea of NOT GUILTY. After a trial, I won the case. The judge agreed with me and dismissed the case. I have done this many times and I have found that prosecutors, officers, and even judges are not familiar with this law. So this legal defense is the most common.
Virginia Reckless Driving: The Officer Clocks the Wrong Vehicle
I have also won cases where the officer does not clock the correct vehicle. Radar operates in such a way that it does not pinpoint an exact vehicle. And so the issue becomes, how does the officer know the vehicle that is breaking the law?
Sometimes the officer will pull over two vehicles that both appear to be driving the same speed. However, if the officer does not individually clock each vehicle then the charge must be dismissed. And they do this pretty frequently. For this defense you need an honest police officer to admit they did not actually clock the vehicle and I have won cases this way.
Virginia Reckless Driving: The Officer Makes a Mistake on the Ticket
Not every error on a ticket will result in a dismissal. For instance, if the officer spells your name wrong or if the officer gets the address wrong. These are common mistakes.
However, some mistakes WILL result in a dismissal.
Example 1: I entered a plea of NOT GUILTY for a client where the officer wrote down the offense date on the ticket but it did not match up with the correct DAY OF THE WEEK on the ticket. In other words, one of the two HAD TO BE WRONG. As a result there was no valid offense date. The officer was honest and could not remember when the ticket was written and the judge dismissed the case.
Example 2: The officer pulled over my client and gave my client the ticket. However, the officer wrote the name of the person whose vehicle it was registered in when filling out the ticket but used my client’s license number when he completed the ticket. Therefore essentially two different people were on the ticket. The judge had to dismiss the case because the officer could not identify who the actual driver was in court.
Other Common Reckless Driving in Virginia; Reckless Driving General
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-852. Reckless driving; general rule.
This law is the general rule against reckless driving. You see this where someone spins their tires, whether they get in an accident, and you often see this as a reduced DUI. The range of punishment is identical to the reckless driving by speed law in Virginia.
0-12 months in jail
These charges are often MORE SERIOUS than reckless driving by speed. Accident cases in particular are generally more serious due to the potential for injury, the risk to law enforcement and public safety, etc. Even within accident cases there is a hierarchy of how serious these charges are based on the following:
whether this was a single vehicle accident or a multi vehicle accident
whether or not anyone was transported to the hospital
whether or not there is insurance to cover damages
the driving behavior that lead to the accident
Reckless driving accident cases often depend on statements made to the police. If there was one area of law I could tell people to REMAIN SILENT this would be it. However, most people do not. In most accident cases the officer does not witness the accident. And there are rarely witnesses who are brought to court. So the only way many people can get convicted are based on their OWN statements as to the cause of the accident.
Even if there is evidence sufficient to find you guilty, WE CAN OFTEN GET CHARGES REDUCED OR DISMISSED.
Is Improper Driving a Misdemeanor in Virginia? What is Improper Driving?
Improper driving is a not a misdemeanor. It is a traffic infraction, and if you are convicted it will NOT leave you with a criminal record. The punishment for improper driving is simply a fine up to $500. Here are some important facts about Improper Driving:
only the JUDGE or PROSECUTOR has the ability to amend a reckless driving charge to improper driving
this means that improper driving is NOT a lesser included offense for reckless driving even though many people (even lawyers) get this wrong
because it is not a lesser included offense, the JURY cannot reduce reckless driving to improper driving
it is simply a violation where culpability is SLIGHT
the JUDGE cannot suspend your license for improper driving
the prosecutor has a right to reduce the charge to improper driving and the judge has no say
as the law is written, the prosecutor may reduce the charge at any time before the court’s decision and shall notify (not ask permission) the court of the change
In Virginia, Improper Driving is the lowest moving violation you can get. If you are licensed here in Virginia it carries the fewest points you can get for a moving violation. If you are licensed out of state, it sometimes will not show up on your out of state license. It really depends on your home state and who is in charge of transferring charges. Some states have a “careless driving” law that is similar. Either way, this is a minor moving violation, and not reckless driving. Here is the text of the law:
Virginia Reckless Driving Article 7. Reckless Driving and Improper Driving.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-853. Driving vehicle which is not under control; faulty brakes.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-854. Passing on or at the crest of a grade or on a curve.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-855. Driving with driver’s view obstructed or control impaired.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-856. Passing two vehicles abreast.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-857. Driving two abreast in a single lane.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-858. Passing at a railroad grade crossing.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-859. Passing a stopped school bus; prima facie evidence.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-860. Failing to give proper signals.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-861. Driving too fast for highway and traffic conditions.
Virginia Reckless Driving§ 46.2-862. Exceeding speed limit.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-863. Failure to yield right-of-way.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-864. Reckless driving on parking lots, etc.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-865. Racing; penalty.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-865.1. Injuring another or causing the death of another while engaging in a race; penalties.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-866. Racing; aiders or abettors.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-867. Racing; seizure of motor vehicle.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-868. Reckless driving; penalties.
Virginia Reckless Driving § 46.2-868.1. Aggressive driving; penalties.