There are many excuses that people can come up with to justify speeding on roadways, however, what excuses are actually viable in court? A Virginia speeding ticket lawyer discusses below. To learn more about speeding offenses in Virginia or to build a defense for your charge, call and schedule a consultation with an attorney today.
An attorney can look at the facts of your case, inform you of the best and worst scenarios, and help devise the strongest defense possible based on the facts of your case. For more on what legal representation can do for you, call today.
The best defense for exceeding the speeding limit is an emergency situation. If someone can show in court that the reason that they were exceeding the speeding limit was to save life, limb, property, or something along those lines then generally that is a pretty strong defense as long as there is a true emergency that they can prove.
A mitigating circumstance for speeding would be an emergency, so if someone was rushing to the hospital because somebody was on their deathbed in the vehicle, then it is very unlikely that the judge is going to find them guilty of speeding. Any kind of extraordinary circumstances like that are probably the strongest types of mitigating circumstances for speeding. Speeding because someone is late to work is a terrible defense that people try to use all the time. All that accomplishes is saying that you acknowledge that you were speeding because you were doing it on purpose.
Another defense is an improperly calibrated speedometer. This does show that the speeding was unintentional and that if it wasn’t for a broken speedometer, their speed would’ve been legal.
Going with the flow of traffic is not a very good defense, but it is probably the most common defense that judges hear in court. In certain scenarios, it could possibly be a defense, but only if the defendant was able to prove that going with the flow of traffic was due to an emergency or would have caused an accident or some other dire situation was avoided because of going with the flow of traffic. Otherwise it is not a defense.
No judge is going to accept someone saying that they were going with the flow of traffic as a reason for speeding. The logic is that everybody on the highway breaking the law is not a justification for you going on the highway breaking the law as well. If everybody is driving drunk, it naturally would not be an excuse for everyone else to do so, so why should that be the case of speeding.
The most effective defense against radar gun readings in court is the lack of a recent calibration of the instrument or improper or incorrect information on the calibration certificate. Generally, any defense related to the inaccuracy of the radar equipment will be with the calibration certificate.
Sometimes the officer for whatever reason does not have it on him, maybe he is having a frazzled day and just did not bring his paperwork with him. Sometimes the newer officers do not know how to fill them out properly and they will be missing some piece of crucial information.
In these situations then the speed that is on the radar cannot be accepted by the court as admissible accurate evidence so it is not admitted. An officer needs more evidence in order to prove that the driver was going at whatever speed. Generally, there is no more evidence so then the case is dismissed.
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