I know a lot of people on this site bash on cops, and I never felt any ill-will towards them until recently. I have a clean record but this week I got a "Reckless Driving" ticket driving 83 miles per hour in a 65 miles per hour zone. I was in Manassas, and would appreciate any info/advice you all would have on how to approach my court date. If I was tailgaiting someone I could understand it, but I was in the left lane and was leaving a lot of space to the cars ahead of me. I'm guessing I'll just get fined a few hundred dollars, but any advice or your own stories on speeding/reckless driving tickets would be nice.

Ask the following questions when you go to court:
When was the radar/laser gun last calibrated?
When was the police officer last trained to use a radar/laser gun?

And, why the fuck do you feel "ill-will" towards the police? You make it seem like it was the cops fault... YOU were driving 83mph in a 65mph zone! What is there that you don't understand?

get a lawyer, you will need it. reckless driving is taken seriously nowadays. I was in an accident in Arlington in which i was cut off and crashed into the guard rail and the cops gave me a reckless driving ticket.

The officer did not give you a reckless driving ticket because he thought you were driving like a maniac, he gave it to you because the law required it:

§ 46.2-862. Exceeding speed limit.

A person shall be guilty of reckless driving who drives a motor vehicle on the highways in the Commonwealth (i) at a speed of twenty miles per hour or more in excess of the applicable maximum speed limit or (ii) in excess of eighty miles per hour regardless of the applicable maximum speed limit.

Schrute, you are a fucking tool. I bet your mother was a great rape victim, though. Passive. Your father must have had an easy time.

RESton Peace Wrote:
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> Schrute, you are a fucking tool. I bet your
> mother was a great rape victim, though. Passive.
> Your father must have had an easy time.

Good One.

RESton Peace Wrote:
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> Schrute, you are a fucking tool. I bet your
> mother was a great rape victim, though. Passive.
> Your father must have had an easy time.

Why does his comment make him a tool? He quoted the law and stated a fact. The signs say speed limit 65, not suggested speed 65. If people are going to go that fast they shouldn't complain about getting a reckless ticket.

In all fairness, I called him a tool first in another thread. RESton Peace is a police hater. See, he is one of those guys that goes out in public and does as he pleases and doesn't think anyone can do anything about it. Well, apparently somewhere along the way, Mr. Peace has been held accountable by our fine law enforcement officers and now he has nothing but bad things to say about them. I can guarantee one thing though. The minute a bad guy breaks into his house, he will hide in the closet, dial 911, and prey for the boys in blue to get there and save him.

Young Schrute is speculating based on his own personal experience, the one that ended with his sister being victimized in the same way his mother was during his conception.

It makes me wonder what any of that has to do with his very poor reading comprehension and attention skills (he fails to read all the word in sentences and apparently cannot make himself go back and read enough old posts to make a truly infored decision).

The ADD medications and antidepressants just made him want to kill himself more, so he found another outlet, as suggested by his therapist. This outlet is coming online and using his limited vocabulary to attempt to insult the adults that post here. I commend him for not wallowing in all the horrors he has allowed through the apparently awful cowardice he is now attempting to project through me. Too bad for him that even a casually educated person can see through that psychological claptrap.

I think we can all feel sympathy for his mental condition and pray for his recovery. Maybe he'll even go on his first date someday if his recovery goes well!

Gotta side with Schrute on this one... he was quoting regs, not sure why he's getting nailed for it.

In my own experience the only time I find myself going over 75 is if I'm in a pack on I-95 heading down to Richmond or something. But definitely in a pack... being an outlier gets one noticed. Of course I learned that after getting three speeding tickets, so I'm not saying "speeders deserve it" or anything here.

he is one of those guys that goes out in public and does as he pleases and
doesn't think anyone can do anything about it

Haha, that's such a really bizarre assumption to make, and it really creates a funny image, like RP just walking out his door every morning, saying "I'm gonna do fuckin whatever I want", and then goes out raising hell, scoffing all of society's norms. LOL. Schrute's comment sounds like something an 80 year old women would say.

You are all right. I am an 80 year old female who is suffering from mental illness because my mother and sister were raped. Because of all this psychological trauma, I have ADD and take medication for it, along with my depression. I only hope to go on my first date soon...

HAHA, it was fun feeding the RESton troll, but I am done now. I will continue posting substantive comments because that is what my therapist said I should do.

If you get a decent lawyer most likely what will happen because you have a clean record is that you will get the charge reduced to disobeying a highway sign or speeding 20mph or over. If you go without a lawyer they usually won't even give you the time of day and you can be guaranteed a reckless ticket and a serious mark on your record. They take Reckless Driving around here just as seriously as DUI in some cases. Get a lawyer.

Is that really true about if you don't get a lawyer the judge won't give you the time of day? I was hoping that since I had a clean record and the fact that the police officer said he would vouch for me (whatever that means) since I was being very respectful, that I wouldn't need to shell out for a lawyer. How much would it cost for a decent lawyer?

Also, I hope they wouldn't "Reduce" my charge to speeding 20 mph or over, I wasn't even going 20 mph in the first place. I'm hoping they just knock it down 4 mph and say I went 79. Hopefully after that I can go to driving school so I won't have as many points.

Ok, my post looks dumb but I know what vouch means, just meant that I didn't know what the police officer would say to the judge. I really wonder how much the judge would care when the officer says I was kind.

Secondly, I meant I wasn't going 20 mph over the speed limit.

If fairfax, only a member of the bar can negotitate with a prosecutor.

The prosecutor is who you have to worry about first, dude. Any "vouching" the cop does will be to that person first. The judges around here are robot sentencing machines that work on behalf of the prosecutors' will.

Reckless driving defense should cost 500 dollars for a decent lawyer, and 750 for some. No more.

From being on this website for a few short weeks, I've come to realize that Mr. RESton Peasce knows a lot about everything. Always has an answer. Impressive.

Weigh your options wisely. RESton Peace hit the nail on the head with his post. If you pay a lawyer $500-750 to defend you, and you get a plea from reckless driving to speeding (10-19 mph) than you go from a 4 to 6 point demerit offense. The judge can't do anything with points, so if you are worried about getting suspended for rapid point accumulation, than the $500-750 may be worth it to get less points.

If points are not an issue for you, than screw the attorney. An 83/65 mph reckless/speeding ticket will likely get you a fine of about $150-200. You should not face any license suspension (unless your record is -6 or worse). And the fail safe is if you go to court without a lawyer and the judge finds you guilty and sentences you to death, than just walk to the traffic clerk's window and note an appeal, you will get a brand new trial (trial de novo) in the circuit court of appeals. If you go to circuit court, then you can pay an attorney.

I appreciate that.

I hope the guy can get a plea that good, a lot of prosecutors can be gung-ho about keeping the charge intact and bargaining only with the sentence. They know that having that heavier charge sitting there on your record will do more harm in the long term than most sentences do in the short.

"From being on this website for a few short weeks, I've come to realize that Mr. RESton Peasce knows a lot about everything. Always has an answer. Impressive."

He can suck a mean dick too. Equally impressive.

Speaking of Ciruit Court. Where can find a verdict online for a FFX Circuit Court case. I tried the http://wasdmz1.courts.state.va.us/CJISWeb/circuit.html but there is not a Fairfax Circuit court listed. Is there another Ciruit Court for FFX?

Fairfax County Circuit Courts have not made their dockets accessible online at this time. Only General District Courts.

www.courts.state.va.us

hey, agent zero. is this video of you driving?

http://www.dbasixx.com/player.php?video=nicecar

lol that's an awesome ride that guy has :P

anyways back to the topic... He is right, in fairfax you can't talk to the prosecuter unless your a lawyer. And i wouldn't put too much stock in the what the officer will say in court. Judges in fairfax county for the most part already have there assumptions about you and your case based on what the officer says before they even hear what you have to say and alot of times they won't even really listen to what your saying. thats why its better to have a lawyer in any traffic case that you are required to go to court for ( i.e. reckless).

RC29B1 WROTE:
anyways back to the topic... He is right, in fairfax you can't talk to the prosecuter unless your a lawyer. And i wouldn't put too much stock in the what the officer will say in court. Judges in fairfax county for the most part already have there assumptions about you and your case based on what the officer says before they even hear what you have to say and alot of times they won't even really listen to what your saying. thats why its better to have a lawyer in any traffic case that you are required to go to court for ( i.e. reckless).

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He knows what he is talking about. Make sure you read what he has written, and store it in your "vault". Man......this guy is smart.
He knows what every single Fairfax County General District Court Judge is thinking, and what he/she will say about your case.
Mr. rc29b1 (hey, wasn't he in the Star Wars movies?) has got his act together. He knows it all. WOW!!!!!

Does anyone know if you get a speeding ticket in another state, does it count against your VA points??

adam, the best answer to that question is "it can, it should, it may not". Virginia has a reciprocity agreement in that regard, but I know several people who have had tickets in other states that never made onto any records in VA, and I believe a ticket I got in dc for a moving violation a few years ago never made onto any lists.

The Drivers License Compact has been adopted by all but about five states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee (dropped out in 1997) and Massachusetts). The key to whether you get points or not is if the agency that charged you "reports" it to your "home jurisdiction" as required. Here is some good reading for you:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+46.2-483

Reciprocity simply means that an out-of-state violator is released on their signature. You will know immediately if a state you're cited in is reciprocal with your home state....if not, you must post collateral (pay up) before you are sent on your way.

Reciprocity has nothing to do with whether the other state will report tickets you got there to your home state.