Best Defense for Reckless Driving in Virginia
The best defense for a Virginia reckless driving ticket is to find a problem within the officer’s calibration. This obviously applies to speed-related offenses only. If you have a reckless driving by speed ticket, finding a fatal defect with the officer’s calibration is the best defense.
Note that the success of any defense will depend upon the facts of the case, how the defense is presented, and the judge who is hearing the case.
When an officer charges you for reckless driving by speed, he’s usually using some type of equipment to measure your speed: either radar, laser or his vehicle’s speedometer. When he comes to court for the case, he has to be able to prove that his equipment was calibrated and accurate on the day in question.
This provides a fruitful source for us to defend the case. If the officer can’t prove that his equipment was calibrated and accurate, then your case should be dismissed. That means there’s not credible evidence of speed to show that you were reckless driving by speed.
Exactly how to raise this defense differs based on all the facts of the case. And quite honestly, it doesn’t come up that often. It’s a strong defense when there is an issue with the speedometer calibration or paperwork, but it is not a routine situation to see in court.
There are several key issues regarding the calibration certificates. The big ones have to do with the timing of the calibration and the actual paperwork. Once an issue is identified in your case, we have to carefully decide how to leverage it. Hopefully we can use it to get the case dismissed.
