Commercial Drivers May Have New Traffic Option
Commercial drivers have a hard job to do. They’re integral to our economy, and yet they get little respect.
Virginia law even prohibits them from attending driving school to reduce or dismiss a traffic ticket. Virginia Code 46.2-505 says that judges cannot use driving school for any holder of a commercial driver’s license or any violation committed in a commercial vehicle.
But a new option might be available now. That option lies in a new Virginia Supreme Court opinion.
On January 13th, the Court decided Hernandez v. Commonwealth (pdf). The single issue was whether or not a judge has the inherent authority to defer the disposition of a case to a future time. The Court clearly ruled that judges can do that.
Hernandez affirms that judges have broad discretion in rendering and withholding judgments. This applies to traffic and misdemeanor cases, and even for commercial drivers.
With that said, judges do have two limits when it comes to commercial driver’s licenses:
1. A federal regulation prohibits the states from “masking” convictions of commercial drivers to prevent them from appearing on their driving records.
2. The Virginia Code, as mentioned above, prohibits judges from reducing or dismissing an offense after a commercial driver goes to driving school.
So what options are left? In my view, nothing prohibits a judge from ordering a commercial driver to perform community service or some other activity in order to have a charge reduced or dismissed.
There is no conviction until the judge enters a conviction (Hernandez makes that clear). Thus, nothing is being masked in violation of federal law. And the Code only prohibits driving school for CDL holders, not community service.
We’ll see how this argument works in court.
Photo by PhotoGraham
