Arlington Hit and Run Defense Strategies

When preparing a defense for a hit and run accident, an Arlington hit and run lawyer needs to approach the case by locating any available witnesses, interviewing them, finding out any information about injuries, and getting the medical records for any passengers or persons that were injured in the other vehicle. Additionally, they need to find out what kind of damage, if any, was done to the property and how much the damage was worth.

Unfortunately, it is easy to get to the $1,000 mark, so hit and runs are often charged as felonies simply because the amount of damage that is caused exceeds $1,000. Fleeing the scene of the accident does not help when it comes to determining penalties. A Virginia criminal defense attorney preparing a robust defense for your case is going to be attacking that number and finding information that will allow them to argue that it does not reach a $1,000.

Preparing a Defense

When preparing a defense for a hit and run, a criminal defense attorney is going to find all of the information that is going to attack the offenses that the Commonwealth is trying to prove. The dollar amount of the damage is going to be a big point of contention in the case, so any evidence the criminal defense attorney is able to collect to attack the amount will be extremely helpful to a defense. Similar estimates are necessary for specific types of work on certain types of vehicles, including eyewitnesses, or anybody that is available to talk about what exactly was done to the vehicle, such as a mechanic.

Additionally, if there are any passengers in the car, a criminal defense attorney is going to talk to them, get their statements, and find out exactly what they saw or did not see to help address the points that the Commonwealth is going to try to prove.

Expert Witnesses

For a hit and run case, somebody is going to be arguing the amount of damage to a vehicle. If there is any damage whatsoever, which there usually is in a hit and run, there is going to be some kind of argument over how much. That amount is crucial, especially in determining whether or not it should be charged as a felony or a misdemeanor.

Hiring an expert, for example, a mechanic or somebody who is able to say the extent of the damage caused, the amount of money and bodywork that is going to be needed, and whether or not that was appropriate or in relation to this particular hit that was made, is crucial, so an expert who can talk about the amount of property damage is a huge asset to a defense.

Similarly, you might need an expert to talk about the amount of injury to the other person or talk about whether or not that injury was actually caused by the accident.