Speeding Ticket Defenses in Northern Virginia
High speeding ticket fines, court costs, and other add-ons are only the direct costs. A single speeding ticket could increase auto insurance rates over 80 percent. Especially if you’re already in a high-risk category (young driver, bad driving record, etc.), one speeding ticket could effectively take you off the road.
Traffic school is usually the best option in these cases, but it’s not always available. Additionally, traffic school, even if you take the course online, usually means at least three court appearances instead of one. Finally, traffic school is a one-time option. Burning that one second chance with a first-time speeding ticket may be a bad idea. Speeding tickets usually come in bunches.
A better idea is to let a Leesburg speeding ticket lawyer evaluate your case and identify any possible defenses. Most municipal prosecutors quickly back down in these situations and offer deals like deferred disposition. If the driver doesn’t receive any tickets for a few months and jumps through some other hoops, the judge dismisses the case.
Substantive Defense
These defenses usually pertain to the enforcement method. All speeding ticket enforcement methods are unreliable in one way or another, and some are worse than others.
- Pacing: “Pacing” is a fancy word for “guessing.” Officers use their own speeds to estimate other vehicles’ speeds. For inexperienced officers, pacing is blind guessing.
- RADAR: These gadgets are the most common speeding enforcement devices. They’re only accurate at very close range. Furthermore, if an officer aims a RADAR gun at a cluster of vehicles, the results don’t prove which vehicle was speeding.
- LIDAR: Laser guns are very accurate, even at long range. But these sophisticated and sensitive devices require lots of maintenance and TLC.
Witness credibility, or more particularly witness appearance, is another major substantive defense in speeding ticket cases.
Fifty years ago, police officers got free pancakes at IHOP as a show of respect. Now, police officers pay for their own pancakes. That arrangement is over, and the respect is over as well.
The lack of respect is one of the main reasons police officers turnovers has spiraled upward in recent years. In the six or eight months between the ticket and the court date, there’s a good chance the officer will leave the force.
Turnover is an even bigger issue in stale speeding ticket cases arising from old warrants. The issuing officer will have certainly moved on by then.
While we’re on the subject, we should briefly address old warrants. Arrest warrants don’t have expiration dates. The good news is that, in many cases, a Leesburg criminal defense lawyer can lift the warrant and successfully resolve the matter, as outlined above.
Technical Defense
Jurisdictional issues, pleadings/proof variance, and illegal speed traps are the most common speeding ticket technical defenses.
State police can issue tickets anywhere in the state, and county sheriffs can issue tickets anywhere in a county. A city police officer’s jurisdiction ends at the city limits. In densely populated suburban areas like Northern Virginia, it’s often hard to determine where the line is.
Variance relates to a typo on the ticket. If the officer misspells the defendant’s name, that’s usually no big deal. Ifan officer enters the wrong make/model vehicle, a judge could rule that there’s a fatal variance between the pleading and the proof.
Photo speed traps, the most common speed traps in Virginia, are only legal in school crossing zones, construction zones, and high-risk intersections.
Count on a Dedicated Loudoun County Lawyer
There’s a big difference between an arrest and a conviction in criminal law. For a confidential consultation with an experienced criminal defense attorney in Leesburg, contact Simms Showers, LLP, Attorneys at Law. Convenient payment plans are available.
Source:
autoinsurance.com/states/virginia/how-speeding-ticket-impacts-insurance/
