Talk to a Virginia Traffic Attorney BEFORE Going to Court
It’s a mistake to wait to talk to a traffic attorney until you get to court, especially if your job is on the line.
Video Transcription
Hello, my name is Andrew Flusche. I’m a Virginia traffic attorney. It’s very risky to go to court without an attorney. I talk to people quite often who go to court for a reckless driving case or a DUI (but especially reckless driving) without an attorney thinking things will be OK. They think that the judge will just have mercy on them. And I’m here to tell you that unfortunately, that’s not true.
The judges don’t normally just give people breaks left and right. At a bare minimum, some judges require you to actually ask for a break, and you need to ask for it in a way that the judge is listening for. There are certain key words for example that the judge is looking for you to say in order to get a break.
However, if you don’t know what to say and you don’t know how to present yourself to the judge, then you’re not going to know what to do. I’ve talked to plenty of people who go into court with a pretty good driving record and they call me afterwards and say that they were convicted of reckless driving. Then I look at what happened and look at the speed and start thinking “What am I missing? Why was this person convicted? How can I help this person?” and it turns out that they simply didn’t ask the judge to give them a break. Something simple like that can make a big difference in a reckless driving case.
So I highly recommend that anytime you’re charged with a traffic or misdemeanor charge, that you definitely talk to an attorney at the very least. If you can afford it, you should definitely hire somebody to go to court with you and, in some cases, even take care of the case without you there.
