Reply With QuoteLunatic you the man! Great advice ill def do my research and ask exactly what you said. Thanks a lot!
:that will be $100 please. just deposit into my paypal account.
:D LMAO
good advice though
Lunatic you the man! Great advice ill def do my research and ask exactly what you said. Thanks a lot!
my pleasure son. represent yourself and approach it logically. lawyers for stuff like this utterly useless and waste of valuable assets. what you're looking to do is NOT tip your hand. ask the policeman when he testifies what constitutes "reckless driving or riding". write down the focal points of his response. then ask him if he observed you perform any of these maneuvers. note what his response is as you'll use it in your brief closing argument. also ask him how long he was following you and if he recalls the approximate speed during this event. if he doesn't recall just let it be as that's in your favor. use that as well in your closing to corroborate that the vehicle directly ahead of you that you passed was travelling substantially below the posted limit and in your opinion falls under the guidelines in VA vehicle code for an acceptable over-taking maneuver on your part.
another $100 please. paypal preferred.
lunatic- I think you have found a new calling on the forum. :)
^^^^^^^ hey john......you have an "in" with any moderators? if so find out what's involved on my end to revise my ID so that it now reads "F. Lee Bailey". :p
Pleading guilty has gone badly for me every time. Max points and max fines. Try to fight it somehow. Calculate how many points you have on your license. If this ticket puts you at 9 points or greater, I would lawyer up, because one more speeding ticket and say goodbye to your license.
I got a 13 point speeding ticket a while back and I had no choice but to lawyer up. If I appeared in court, I might have been sent to jail. I had the money so I got a good lawyer and he knocked it down to a 4 pointer. He was good, he postponed and judge shopped for like 1 month till he got what he wanted. Cost me a pretty penny, but it was well worth it. I took a driver assessment course right after and got the points wiped down to 0.
Thanks for the advice, i am now going to fight it as i believe he cited me totally wrong. After much reading of the laws crossing double yellow lines is not automatic reckless, thats just the officers interpretation of it. Here is the law and the ones i believe i should have been given:
46.2-852. Reckless driving; general rule.
Irrespective of the maximum speeds permitted by law, any person who drives a vehicle on any highway recklessly or at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person shall be guilty of reckless driving.
The following are all the laws i found that actually apply directly to me through the wording:
46.2-838. Passing when overtaking a vehicle.
The driver of any vehicle overtaking another vehicle proceeding in the same direction shall pass at least two feet to the left of the overtaken vehicle and shall not again drive to the right side of the highway until safely clear of such overtaken vehicle, except as otherwise provided in this article.
46.2-843. Limitations on overtaking and passing.
The driver of a vehicle shall not drive to the left side of the center line of a highway in overtaking and passing another vehicle proceeding in the same direction unless such left side is clearly visible and is free of oncoming traffic for a sufficient distance ahead to permit such overtaking and passing to be made safely.
No person operating a truck or combination of vehicles shall pass or attempt to pass any truck or combination of vehicles going in the same direction on an upgrade if such passing will impede the passage of following traffic.
§ 46.2-804. Special regulations applicable on highways laned for traffic.
Whenever any roadway has been divided into clearly marked lanes for traffic, drivers of vehicles shall obey the following: 7. Whenever a highway is marked with double traffic lines consisting of two immediately adjacent solid white lines, no vehicle shall cross such lines;
Basically he is trying to get me on the most extreme "catch all" law of reckless driving general, however i believe one or even 2 of the other laws is what i should have been fined for. All the others are minimum points and very small fines ($91 each including all court fees). He will have to prove that i endangered all life limbs and property by passing with no oncoming traffic, on a back country road, on a straight away, in perfect road conditions, during daylight, and without speeding. Im also going to look into possibly getting a lawyer today. Thanks all for your help, and what is your take from the laws i provided?
I think you've discovered for yourself one of the fundamentals of the legal system: It's all in the interpretation.just the officers interpretation...what is your take from the laws i provided?
I've successfully had every ticket I've ever received on motorcycles over the past couple of decades either thrown out, or at least had the penalties greatly reduced, by fighting them. I'm no legal expert but I have learned that, in spite of what us lay-people tend to believe, the law is not necessarily always the law.
Some other observations from my experience which might help you out:
- Judges, law enforcement & law-makers are distinct entities, each with their own biases, & they do not necessarily all agree with one-another. You can exploit the mis-alignments between them.
- Pick your defense (you can see from all the above suggestions that you have many to choose from) & stick with it. Focus every word that comes out of your mouth on supporting your defense.
- As lunatic pointed out above, use logical arguments which relate back to laws & process. I've not often seen emotion work well in traffic court.
- Use pictures to support your defense. As they say, a picture's worth a thousand words so if there is something about the scene that's relevant to your defense (unclear markings, signage, a crest in the road, whatever), go back & take a picture to present to the Judge. Just be prepared to surrender it as evidence.
- Dress for the occasion & use court-room etiquette. Little things like wearing a tie & addressing the Judge as "Your Honour" show the court (including the LEO who cited you) that you know what you're doing, you're serious about being there & in defending yourself.
Successfully fighting a ticket yourself is rewarding & a great educational experience; I applaud you for deciding to give it a try! :D
1) Learn from it
2) Pay the penalty
3) Lick wounds
This will be the hard part to argue. It clearly says "no vehicle shall cross such lines;"§ 46.2-804. Special regulations applicable on highways laned for traffic.
Whenever any roadway has been divided into clearly marked lanes for traffic, drivers of vehicles shall obey the following: 7. Whenever a highway is marked with double traffic lines consisting of two immediately adjacent solid white lines, no vehicle shall cross such lines;
The lines before that say:
If you weren't turning left, you got nailed by #5, #6 and #7.5. Wherever a highway is marked with double traffic lines consisting of a solid line immediately adjacent to a broken line, no vehicle shall be driven to the left of such line if the solid line is on the right of the broken line, but it shall be lawful to make a left turn for the purpose of entering or leaving a public, private, or commercial road or entrance.
6. Wherever a highway is marked with double traffic lines consisting of two immediately adjacent solid yellow lines, no vehicle shall be driven to the left of such lines, except when turning left;
If the vehicle you were passing was not a farm or service vehicle, but merely a passenger vehicle travelling slow, then the law is generally that you wait until permitted to pass by a dashed centerline.
Your best defense is going to be on a technicality, not the "passing the slow vehicle was safe for me" defense; if the DOT thought it was a safe place to pass, the lines would be dashed.
You got the reckless charge because you passed too close to a curve:
§ 46.2-854. Passing on or at the crest of a grade or on a curve.
A person shall be guilty of reckless driving who, while driving a vehicle, overtakes and passes another vehicle proceeding in the same direction, on or approaching the crest of a grade or on or approaching a curve in the highway, where the driver's view along the highway is obstructed, except where the overtaking vehicle is being operated on a highway having two or more designated lanes of roadway for each direction of travel or on a designated one-way roadway or highway.
The "Exceptions" for crossing a double yellow does not list "slow moving traffic", or anything similar.
https://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/leg...0+cod+46.2-920
Virginia is pretty black and white, good luck.
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