The VLW Blog

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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In an ongoing, never-ending effort to figure out how to generate money for transportation, the 2007 General Assembly came up with at least a partial source for funds: bad drivers.
In House Bill 3202, the transportation funding bill, the Assembly established a new system of “civil remedial fees,” the purpose of which is “to generate [...]

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