Defenses Against Norfolk Speeding Tickets

Virginia prosecutes speeding very harshly. Therefore, it is very easy to find yourself in a situation where you are being issued a citation for speeding, or even charged with reckless driving, which is a much more serious offense. It is certainly possible to contest your speeding ticket, however. Below, an experienced Norfolk speeding ticket lawyer talks about some defenses a person could use regarding their speeding ticket, why others do not qualify as defenses, and possible mitigating factors that may arise.

Claiming an Emergency

Claiming that an emergency forced you to exceed the speed limit is probably one of the better defenses for speeding. It is kind of difficult and doesn’t happen very often, but if someone did have a true emergency, then more likely than not, the case will be dismissed. You could also defend your speed by claiming that a Norfolk police officer mistook your car for another car. There are lots of similar looking cars on the road, so it’s not impossible that an officer would see a speeding vehicle and then believe that a different car was actually the one he was seeing. This is hard to prove because it requires a strong cross-examination, but in the right circumstances it’s not impossible.

With the help of a lawyer, you could also attack the officer’s method of determining your speed. You could look at the radar or LIDAR certificate of calibration to see if it meets all the requirements or you could cross-examine the officer on how he paced you and whether he did so correctly.

Going with the Flow of Traffic

Going with the flow of traffic is easily the most common excuse that many clients will tell their Norfolk speeding ticket attorney as to why they were going at the speed that they were going. But, it’s not a strong defense. The reality of this situation is that if someone is driving with the flow of traffic, then they’ll have to prove that everyone in traffic was also speeding and that they had no choice but to comply or they would have caused an accident. Or they would have to prove that the reason they were going with the flow of traffic was because they were trying to avoid the loss of life, limb, or property.

The fact is that if everyone is doing something illegal, even if its true that everyone in the highway was speeding, it still doesn’t justify you doing something illegal as well. If you apply this logic to any other laws, it doesn’t work. If everyone at a party is smoking marijuana, for example, it doesn’t make it okay for you to smoke marijuana as well. If you see somebody shoplifting, it doesn’t make it okay for you to shoplift. Judges are quick to shoot down this defense whenever it comes up.

Mitigating Circumstances for Speeding in Norfolk

The only real mitigating circumstance is an emergency situation. In court, if someone can show that the reason they were going so fast was due to an emergency situation and reason for the speed was to avoid the loss of life or limb, then sometimes this can make up for the fact that they were breaking the law and the case should be dismissed.