DUI Conviction Upheld for Vehicle Seat-Switcher

Driver could clean up record

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 12, 2012
Tags: Fairfax County Circuit Court, Judge Lorraine Nordlund, Traffic Offenses

A defendant who pleaded guilty to a reduced traffic charge could have the more serious charge expunged from his record, a Fairfax Circuit Court has ruled. Virginia’s statute on expungement of records, Virginia Code § 19.2-392.2(A), prescribes certain rules. If a person is acquitted of a crime, if a nolle prosequi is taken, or if [...]

A charge that’s not a crime

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 19, 2011
Tags: General District Courts, Traffic Offenses

Virginia drivers are being charged and convicted of an offense that is not a crime under state law: driving without proof of insurance. The General Assembly has debated the issue at least three times, but in each instance, a bill to require drivers to carry an insurance card or other proof of insurance has failed. [...]

Lawyer readies for battle over ‘no insurance card’

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 19, 2011
Tags: General District Courts, Traffic Offenses

A lawyer from Lynchburg is ready to take on Sussex County over a charge of driving without proof of insurance. M. Paul Valois said he was appalled at his recent experience as a traffic defendant. Not only was he charged with a crime that doesn’t exist in the code, he said, but he claims the [...]

DMV Transcript Proved Status Indefinite

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 16, 2011
Tags: Judge Robert P. Frank, Traffic Offenses, Virginia Court of Appeals

The commonwealth’s failure to produce defendant’s 1997 habitual offender declaration does not entitle him to reversal of his bench trial conviction for second offense driving as a habitual offender, the Court of Appeals says; a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) transcript proved defendant’s status was indefinite and defendant admittedly knew he needed to petition the [...]

Court kills system with traffic defendant info

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 9, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Traffic Offenses

By Peter Vieth The Supreme Court of Virginia is cutting access to a key source of potential clients for traffic and criminal lawyers. The end of the court’s Law Office Public Access System (“LOPAS”) later this month could make it more costly for high volume law practices to get mailing lists of people charged with [...]

Traffic-fine fight pits state against localities

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 4, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Traffic Offenses

Complaints about “speed traps” may prompt the Virginia General Assembly to recalibrate how the state and various localities divide the money that goes with the traffic fines. Under longstanding practice, Virginia’s local governments have passed their own traffic laws, which frequently correspond to state traffic statutes. Local prosecutors can choose to proceed under local law, [...]

Va. Calibration Test DNA on Federal Parkway

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 17, 2011
Tags: Judge Liam O'Grady, Traffic Offenses, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An Alexandria U.S. District Court affirms defendant’s conviction for speeding on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, despite defendant’s claim the magistrate judge improperly admitted readings of a Lisar laser device without proving recent calibration; because Virginia’s guidelines for calibrating speed-detection devices are administrative, the National Park Service was not required to adopt the measures through [...]

Store-Bought Tag Prompts Pickup Stop

By Deborah Elkins
Published: October 17, 2011
Tags: Judge D. Arthur Kelsey, Traffic Offenses, Virginia Court of Appeals

A defendant who was driving a pickup truck at 10:00 p.m. on a February night, with three people in the cab and a store-bought farm use tag, gave a state trooper reasonable suspicion to stop the truck to determine if in fact it was being used as a farm vehicle, and the Court of Appeals [...]

A different kind of moving violation…

By Paul Fletcher
Published: June 27, 2011
Tags: Fairfax Circuit Court, Judge Brett A. Kassabian, Judge Michael F. Devine, Personal Injury, Traffic Offenses

A 2010 car crash case on the Beltway in Fairfax County lit up the Internet in Northern Virginia last week when some of the allegations against the defendant were publicized. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant was drunk, speeding at 85 mph and having sex at the time of the crash. Just when most readers [...]