No. If you hire me to be your attorney for your traffic case in Virginia, my office will get a copy of your driving record for you. I see that as part of my job as your attorney. It is my job to fully prepare the case for trial, and one critical element of the case is that we need to be able to show the judge that you deserve a break on the case. Part of that is your driving record. The judge is going to want to know if you have similar offenses or not and that is why we need to have it.
Many of my colleagues shift that responsibility to their clients. So you’re not only paying an attorney, but you’re also going to have to go to the trouble and expense of getting your own driving record. And for you that may be a trip to DMV, which I certainly don’t want to make anybody do if we can avoid it.
For us, getting your driving record is usually relatively simple. We have contacts in Virginia DMV where we can fax a letter, have a client’s record pulled, and have the charge added to our account. If your license is out of state we have other ways that we can get your driving record. Sometimes, like for Maryland, we mail our request out with a check. In other states, we use an online database that we pay for so we can try to take every bit of stress off your plate as we possibly can.
Once we get your driving record, we email you a copy so you will know what is on the record and you’ll have that for your future reference as well. We don’t try to keep any secrets from our clients and we want you to be fully informed about your case.
Photo by: Andres Rueda