Wha to expect in Traffic Court for Rappahannock, Virginia
Fred the Red Shirt
the officer issuing the citation if I coule waive trial
and pay the fine by mail. She said yes, if this box
(indicating a box on the form) is checked.
Well, the box isn't checked so I guess I'm going to appear
in person.
Does anybody out there have any personal experience to share
IRT to General District Court (Traffic) for Rappahannock
County? What should I expect? How much money do I need to
take with me? If I contest the ticket will there be a bench
trial immediately or will it be scheduled for a later date?
My Citation was for:
( )State (x)County ( )City ( )Town
Law Section 46.2.870 (R)
63/35 MPH (R) # 2
Car # 4
I already found
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+46.2-870
But that section covers the state-wide 55/65 MPH speed limit.
What do the (R) and (R) # 2 mean?
This was a short stretch with a limit of 35 MPH (a school zone
on a divided highway with a median strip), my guess is that
the Rs refer to that in some way.
Any help deciphering the rest of that would be appreciated.
--
FF
William P. Brown
>
> I got a speeding ticket in Rappahannock County and asked
**SNIP**
> Does anybody out there have any personal experience to share
> IRT to General District Court (Traffic) for Rappahannock
> County? What should I expect? How much money do I need to
> take with me? If I contest the ticket will there be a bench
> trial immediately or will it be scheduled for a later date?
>
The court date on the ticket is the trial date.
> My Citation was for:
>
> ( )State (x)County ( )City ( )Town
> Law Section 46.2.870 (R)
> 63/35 MPH (R) # 2
> Car # 4
>
> I already found
> http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+46.2-870
>
> But that section covers the state-wide 55/65 MPH speed limit.
> What do the (R) and (R) # 2 mean?
>
> This was a short stretch with a limit of 35 MPH (a school zone
> on a divided highway with a median strip), my guess is that
> the Rs refer to that in some way.
>
> Any help deciphering the rest of that would be appreciated.
Speeding in a school zone, eh? I'm not a lawyer. Based on my reading of
the section you cited and following sections, my guess is you will be
fined $390 plus court costs. If you have enough recent violations on
your record, you might get your license suspended or revoked.
Regards,
Bill
Robert E. Lewis
William P. Brown <wpb...@longwood.edu> wrote in message
news:3d288fcd$0$20580$724e...@reader2.ash.ops.us.uu.net...
> Fred the Red Shirt wrote:
> >
> > I got a speeding ticket in Rappahannock County and asked
>
> **SNIP**
>
> > Does anybody out there have any personal experience to share
> > IRT to General District Court (Traffic) for Rappahannock
> > County?
> > What should I expect? How much money do I need to
> > take with me? If I contest the ticket will there be a bench
> > trial immediately or will it be scheduled for a later date?
> >
>
> The court date on the ticket is the trial date.
Or you can request a jury trial (I assume they allow jury trials in VA for
traffic tickets).
>
> > My Citation was for:
> >
> > ( )State (x)County ( )City ( )Town
> > Law Section 46.2.870 (R)
> > 63/35 MPH (R) # 2
> > Car # 4
> >
> > I already found
> > http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+46.2-870
> >
> > But that section covers the state-wide 55/65 MPH speed limit.
> > What do the (R) and (R) # 2 mean?
> >
> > This was a short stretch with a limit of 35 MPH (a school zone
> > on a divided highway with a median strip), my guess is that
> > the Rs refer to that in some way.
I can't say with any authority about your ticket, but when I received a
speeding ticket in Texas, there was a "R" notation on the ticket indicating
that the determination of my speed was made by a Radar speed detector (I
asked the cop about the "R"). This was fortunate, as I was able to show
that the local police dept. was very lax in its training, maintaining and
signing-out of it's radar units, and that there were many opportunities for
radar interference at the locale.
HTH, Good luck.
Robert
Fred the Red Shirt
news:<3d288fcd$0$20580$724e...@reader2.ash.ops.us.uu.net>...
>
So they do it differently in VA than in OH, eh?
>
> Speeding in a school zone, eh?
That's what the deputy said, at which time I was halfway expecting
her to get out the handcuffs. But that is not what the deputy
wrote on the ticket.
--
FF
William P. Brown
>
> news:<3d288fcd$0$20580$724e...@reader2.ash.ops.us.uu.net>...
> >
> > The court date on the ticket is the trial date.
>
> So they do it differently in VA than in OH, eh?
>
I guess. NC, too, it seems. I've contested two traffic violation
tickets, one in North Carolina, one in Virginia. I showed up on the
court date specified on the ticket and, son of a gun, a trial happened.
Now maybe my rights got all violated and I was a victim of the system
but I avoided being convicted in both cases.
> >
> > Speeding in a school zone, eh?
>
> That's what the deputy said, at which time I was halfway expecting
> her to get out the handcuffs. But that is not what the deputy
> wrote on the ticket.
Other posters have commented in other threads that most states allow
fairly easy amending of traffic violation charges at the time of trial.
I do not know how easy that is in Virginia.
Regards,
Bill
(For a picture of the trooper that wrote the Virginia ticket, visit just
about any gas station in Virginia.)
Christopher Green
news:<3d288fcd$0$20580$724e...@reader2.ash.ops.us.uu.net>...
> Speeding in a school zone, eh? I'm not a lawyer. Based on my reading of
> the section you cited and following sections, my guess is you will be
> fined $390 plus court costs. If you have enough recent violations on
> your record, you might get your license suspended or revoked.
>
> Regards,
> Bill
Could the OP also be in for one of Virginia's famous reckless-driving
add-ons? (Over 60 in a 35 zone is one, I think.) Or would the
policeman have to charge that on the original ticket?
--
Not a lawyer,
Chris Green
Fred the Red Shirt
> Fred the Red Shirt wrote:
> >
> > "William P. Brown" <wpb...@longwood.edu> wrote in message
> > news:<3d288fcd$0$20580$724e...@reader2.ash.ops.us.uu.net>...
> > >
> > > The court date on the ticket is the trial date.
> >
> > So they do it differently in VA than in OH, eh?
> >
>
> I guess. NC, too, it seems. I've contested two traffic violation
> tickets, one in North Carolina, one in Virginia. I showed up on the
> court date specified on the ticket and, son of a gun, a trial happened.
> Now maybe my rights got all violated and I was a victim of the system
> but I avoided being convicted in both cases.
>
I'm happy for you.
As I recall in OH, if you plead guilty or no contest then you
immediately get a bench trial, are found guilty and fined etc.
If you plead not guilty a trial is scheduled for a later date.
That way they can get through all the folks who aren't contesting
their tickets quickly and those don't have to sit through a bunch
of other peoples' trials while waiting to 'cash out' and go.
> >
> > That's what the deputy said, at which time I was halfway expecting
> > her to get out the handcuffs. But that is not what the deputy
> > wrote on the ticket.
>
> Other posters have commented in other threads that most states allow
> fairly easy amending of traffic violation charges at the time of trial.
> I do not know how easy that is in Virginia.
>
Yeah I figured that if I contested the ticket they might up the
ante to include the school zone violation. I eventually reached
the clerk who told me I could waive trial and pay by VISA over
the phone (isn't technology wonderful?) despite the fact that
the ticket did not indicate that waiving trial was an option.
So that's what I did.
$127 including court costs. That's not a big deal, I have yet to
see what it does to my insurance.
>
> (For a picture of the trooper that wrote the Virginia ticket, visit just
> about any gas station in Virginia.)
Huh?
--
FF
Stan Brown
misc.legal.moderated:
>As I recall in OH, if you plead guilty or no contest then you
>immediately get a bench trial, are found guilty and fined etc.
>If you plead not guilty a trial is scheduled for a later date.
I don't know if it's uniform statewide, but it was the way in the
1980s and 1990s when I lived in the Cleveland area.
>That way they can get through all the folks who aren't contesting
>their tickets quickly and those don't have to sit through a bunch
>of other peoples' trials while waiting to 'cash out' and go.
And even more important, they penalize people who are actually not
guilty by making them come to court twice for one trial.
The effect, not surprisingly, is to discourage people from asserting
their right to a trial.
--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA
http://oakroadsystems.com/
"My theory was a perfectly good one. The facts were misleading."
-- /The Lady Vanishes/ (1938)
Tom of Bunyon
> I can't say with any authority about your ticket, but when I received a
> speeding ticket in Texas, there was a "R" notation on the ticket
indicating
> that the determination of my speed was made by a Radar speed detector (I
> asked the cop about the "R"). This was fortunate, as I was able to show
> that the local police dept. was very lax in its training, maintaining and
> signing-out of it's radar units, and that there were many opportunities
for
> radar interference at the locale.
There's a web site that deals with ways to dispute speeding tickets. Lost my
drive last Jan and lost the URL. One method that I remembered was the Cosine
defense. It involves computing the time minimally it would take him to
visually acquire your car, train the Radar on it, and obtain a reading.
Compute the distance your car had to travel from the most distant possible
visual sighting point to the earliest point he could have gotten a reading.
You'll need to go to the Radar site to measure this out. Then measure the
angle between you car's path and the radar gun. In a goodly number of cases
(according to the web site), you could show that his speed reading divided
by the cosine of the path-to-radar angle would result in an impossibly high
actual car speed (such as, say, 140 mph).
Robert E. Lewis
Tom of Bunyon <t2...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:3d47e82e$0$2377$4c41...@reader0.ash.ops.us.uu.net...
>
> > I can't say with any authority about your ticket, but when I received a
> > speeding ticket in Texas, there was a "R" notation on the ticket
> indicating
> > I was able to show that the local police dept. was very lax...
> > and that there were many opportunities for
> > radar interference at the locale.
>
> There's a web site that deals with ways to dispute speeding tickets...
> One method that I remembered was the Cosine
> defense. It involves computing the time minimally it would take him to
> visually acquire your car, train the Radar on it, and obtain a reading.
> Compute the distance your car had to travel from the most distant possible
> visual sighting point to the earliest point he could have gotten a
reading.
> You'll need to go to the Radar site to measure this out. Then measure the
> angle between you car's path and the radar gun. In a goodly number of
cases
> (according to the web site), you could show that his speed reading divided
> by the cosine of the path-to-radar angle would result in an impossibly
high
> actual car speed (such as, say, 140 mph).
I did something similar to this in my defense, because the officer was
waiting where he would catch people coming around a broad curve. The
distances involved in my traffic stop were so shirt I was able to show from
published performanc data for my vehicle that I could not have braked from
my alleged speed in the distance between my passing the police car and where
I was actually stopped (it was next to a high school football field, so we
had a frame of reference for distance any juror would understand!)
The lax training and callibration of the radar units was a major help - I
obtained a copy of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 1980
report on police traffic radar (the gov't sent it to me, free) which set up
minimal standards for training officers and callibrating the radar units -
and I knew the department didn't come close to meeting them.
And the potential radar interferrence was very unusual in my case: I was
between two navigable waterways, both of which had vessels with radar on
them; there were high-tension power lines crossing directly over the highway
where I was pegged; and best of all, the arresting officer's radar gun, when
pointed at my vehicle as I approached, would have had the police
department's own central radio transmitter tower directly in line.
One prosecutor, when I requested the department's radar training and
maintenance records, said I wasn't entitled to them and ignored served
subpoenas. His successor, when it came up for trial, looked at the record
of my requests and told the judge he wouldn't oppose my motion to dismiss
for denial of a speedy trial.
Robert