In Fairfax, speeding offenses can be extremely serious. What a lot of people don’t know is that speeding offenses can be charged as either simple speeding or reckless driving. Reckless driving applies if you are going 20 miles per hour or more over the speed limit or any speed over 80 miles per hour regardless of the speed limit. Furthermore reckless driving is not just a speeding infraction or traffic infraction, but is in fact a criminal offense and could result in a misdemeanor criminal conviction.
A Fairfax speeding ticket lawyer can help because he or she can not only advise you of what exactly you’re being charged with, but also help you prepare a defense to the more serious charges should your speed be high enough for the prosecutor to charge you with reckless driving. To discuss your case and what steps may be taken to help you, call and schedule a consultation with a defense attorney in Fairfax today.
A speeding ticket in Fairfax can carry many different types of penalties, depending on what specifically you are charged with. If you are charged with a simple infraction, such as speeding at nine miles per hour over the speed limit, you’ll face a fine of up to $250 as well as points on your license, which are assessed against you by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.
With that said, different traffic infractions and violations of speeding laws can result in different numbers of points being assessed against your license, so it’s important to speak with a Fairfax speeding ticket attorney to find out how many points you’ll be facing and whether it is in your best interest to challenge the ticket.
Reckless driving is considered a different offense than simple speeding. Even though reckless driving is something that you can be charged with for a variety of driving behavior, including a charge based solely on your speed and not based on any other type of driving behavior, a reckless driving by speed charge is not just considered a speeding ticket; it is considered a misdemeanor offense, and if you are found guilty of reckless driving, you will have a criminal conviction on your record.
One way that an officer might try to prove that you are speeding in Fairfax is called pacing, which is when the officer is driving behind you and decides what speed you were going based on the speed of his or her own vehicle.
Another way to prove that you are speeding is to use radar. In that case, the officer would be stationary and would set up a radar gun to target your vehicle from both the front and the back of the officer’s vehicle as you go by.
There are still other times when an officer might try to estimate your speed. If that’s applicable in your case, you need to speak with an speeding ticket attorney in Fairfax immediately because there are certain ways that an officer can and cannot gauge your speed in order to find you guilty of reckless driving or speeding.
For a speeding ticket, you do not need to show up to court as long as you are sure that it is just a speeding ticket. You can pay your speeding ticket in advance, called pre-paying. Paying in advance, however, is the same as admitting guilt. So if you want to contest your ticket at all, you cannot pre-pay, and you must show up to your court date.
Reckless driving, however, since it is a misdemeanor that will appear on your criminal record if you are convicted, requires to you go to court. When you receive your ticket, you actually sign a summons, which says that you agree to appear on a certain court date. If you do not appear, the court will charge you with something called a failure to appear. Then you’ll not only have to answer for your reckless driving charge at your next court date, but you’ll also be facing another misdemeanor charge for failing to show up to court on your original misdemeanor charge.
Having an experienced Fairfax speeding ticket lawyer is extremely important because your attorney can tell you exactly what penalties you’ll be facing as far as fines and points on your license. Points on your license can affect you in a few ways, including increasing the cost of your insurance and making you potentially ineligible to drive in Fairfax if enough points are assessed against you. That’s why it’s important to speak with a speeding ticket attorney in order to make sure that you are accepting the right option or taking the right approach when it comes to your defense.