How Reckless Driving is Prosecuted in Portsmouth, VA
If you are facing charges of reckless driving in the Portsmouth area, the following is what you should know about how these types of cases are prosecuted. Call today to schedule a free consultation with a Portsmouth reckless driving lawyer to discuss your case.
There is typically no prosecutor involved in reckless driving cases in Portsmouth. The police officer who issued the summons is the one who will be opposite the defendant.
For the most common type of reckless driving cases, which are speed related, the police officer has to prove to the judge beyond a reasonable doubt that the charged driver was driving over 80 miles per hour or was driving 20 miles per hour over whatever the speed limit was.
A good attorney will ensure that the officer follows all of the necessary steps for the case and would move to have the case dismissed if the officer failed to do so. This can get complicated as the officer must go into specifics about his equipment and the calibration and sometimes, the officer will accidentally miss a step.
In the other types of reckless driving, the officer has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the driver was guilty of whatever the exact reckless behavior is that he is charged with.
Can Prosecutors Be Involved In A Reckless Driving Case Or Is It Just Going To Be The Officers?
The prosecutors become involved under very serious circumstances such as if there are a lot of witnesses or victims and the reckless driving resulted in an accident. Otherwise, the prosecutors typically don’t handle reckless driving cases in Portsmouth.
What Are Some Of The Most Common Mistakes You See Individuals Make In Reckless Driving Cases?
I see individuals treat the case as a traffic ticket. They go into court, they plead guilty, they accept the punishment, they go home and call it a day. They see it as just a necessary evil rather than realizing that they do have the option to potentially fight this charge and sometimes, have it dismissed all together. They don’t put much thought into a charge that can result in a permanent criminal conviction, which is a very big deal.
If the case is truly hopeless, an attorney can still help somebody obtain better results in terms of sentencing. Some people can’t afford to go to jail and can lose their jobs if they were punished in this way. There are a lot of aspects to reckless driving charge that are misunderstood.
And all of these misconceptions can cause permanent damage to someone’s life. To avoid making these kinds of mistakes, people should take this case seriously and hire an attorney right off the bat.