The VLW Blog

A bill to broaden Virginia’s "move-over" law has advanced in the House of Delegates.
The current law requires drivers to move to the left when approaching a stopped police, fire or rescue vehicle with flashing lights. (Slowing down generally is not enough , despite what some highway signs say.)
A bill to expand the move-over law for [...]

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The Virginia Court of Appeals says today that improper driving is not a lesser included offense of reckless driving by speed.
The defendant, accused of driving more than 80 miles per hour, presented a jury instruction based on Virginia Code Sec. 46.2-869, which allows a conviction for improper driving rather than reckless driving “where the degree [...]

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A traffic judge was lenient in the jaywalking case of a man who tried to help geese cross the Fairfax County Parkway.
According to The Washington Post, Jozsef Vamosi pulled his car to the side of the busy road during morning rush hour, and stepped out into the road to steer the geese to safety. No [...]

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A driver’s answer to an officer’s “incidental” question in a convenience store parking lot can’t come into evidence, a Roanoke City Circuit Court says.
In Commonwealth v. Fuller, a uniformed, shield-wielding officer pulled his patrol car up beside Lloyd Jasper Fuller and saw he was not wearing a seat belt.
“Fuller’s face registered considerable surprise, [...]

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The controversy over Virginia’s new “civil remedial fees” for “abusive drivers” has generated a lot of ink in the last two months.
The Washington Post has made the brouhaha a little personal for the commonwealth’s lawmakers.
Quite a few public officials, from Gov. Tim Kaine to Speaker Bill Howell to other members of the General [...]

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The next battleground for the fight over the commonwealth’s new scheme of “civil remedial fees” for “abusive drivers” will be Arlington.
Maybe.
Charles Mason, a Navy veteran, has been charged with driving 75 mph in a 55 mph zone. He could be hit for a fee of $1,050 if convicted. He is scheduled to appear [...]

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The first circuit judge to consider the constitutionality of Virginia’s civil remedial fees said he hopes to rule next week.
Henrico Judge L.A. Harris Jr. heard brief arguments today from prosecutor Duncan P. Reid and from defense attorney Craig S. Cooley, who is representing Anthony O. Price along with Esther J. Windmueller.
General District Judge Archer L. [...]

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Two days. Two rulings that Virginia’s civil remedial fees are unconstitutional.
Yesterday, it was Henrico General District Judge Archer L. Yeatts III, who acknowledged that he is obliged to enforce the law if there is any rational basis for it. However, “The court rejects the speculations postulated by the Commonwealth, and mindful of its of its [...]

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McLean lawyer Corinne Magee has a legal argument that the new civil remedial fees for abusive drivers are unconstitutional, and she isn’t keeping it a secret.
She has made it available to her colleagues in the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers — and to Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Click here for a copy of her draft [...]

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As we noted on this blog in a post last month, the 2007 General Assembly set up a system to whack bad drivers with new hefty fines in the transportation bill.
Most of the new-statute stories in the general press before the July 1 effective date have focused on the new fees. See, for example, [...]

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