Someone was charge with reckless driving in Fairfax County VA
recently.  The person charged was being aggressively tailgated.  The
person charged attempted to get the person off his tail by braking
suddenly on several occasions which did not work.  This person being
tailgated then slowed their vehicle several times in fact came to an
almost complete stop more than once.  This still did not cause the
tailgater to discontinue.  The Fairfax county sherrif observed this
from a distance and pulled the car being tailgated over and charged
them with reckless driving and threatened aggressive driving charges. 
He stated that the flow of traffic was being impeded (55mph road) and
that the lives of others were being put in danger including the
children in the car of the person charged.  The officer was reportedly
very stern and stated "we will talk about the matter in court.  It
seems clear that representation by an attorney is needed.  Questions:
1. How do you determine if an attorney has the skills to help you
2. How do you determine if an attorney is respected by his colleagues
and has the capacity to be effective
3. Is there any other approach that should be persued other than a
plea bargain?
4. Can a letter from a Representative from Congress be of any help in
the matter?

Dear express2me-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. I have spent more than 20 years in law enforcement and have
quite a bit of insight into these types of issues. Let me address your
questions one at a time:

“How do you determine if an attorney has the skills to help you?”

You can check with the state Bar Association to see if your attorney
of choice is in good standing. You can also check with the attorney’s
office itself and see if they are prepared to offer you verifiable
references or check with the Better Business Bureau to see if there
are any outstanding complaints. In addition, you can check with other
attorney’s in your area to see what type of feedback you might get
from them regarding an attorney’s effectiveness, attorney/client
demeanor and the types of clients and cases the attorney seems to be
most effective in representing. Keep in mind though that you are not
dealing with a capital murder case here and that most licensed
attorney’s are at least capable of representing a client in a traffic
case (or they don’t stay in the field very long). Here are some
sources for checking limited information about a Virginia attorney:

VIRGINIA STATE BAR – ATTORNEY SEARCH
http://www.vsb.org/attorney/attSearch.asp

VIRGINIA STATE BAR – ADMINISTRATIVE SUSPENSIONS
http://www.vsb.org/membership/suspensions.html

VIRGINIA STATE BAR – PUBLIC DISCIPLINARY HEARINGS
http://www.vsb.org/profguides/hearings.html

DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE VIRGINIA STATE BAR
http://www.vsb.org/disciplinary.html


There are some methods that claim to be able to check deeper into an
attorney’s “track record” for a fee, such as this service:

ATTORNEY SEARCH NETWORK
http://www.getareferral.com/lawyercheck.htm


“How do you determine if an attorney is respected by his colleagues
and has the capacity to be effective?

Respect and effectiveness are two very separate and different issues
here. Short of getting some sincere feedback from his/her colleagues
there’s no way to know if an attorney is respected or not. Then again,
respect is not a prerequisite in the legal field nor is it indicative
of an attorney’s effectiveness. There are a lot of attorney’s in this
world who are infamous in the legal arena and by all measure are also
quite effective (note some of the celebrity cases in the past few
years). Effectiveness on the other hand is obviously a matter of
concern since no one wants to lose his or her case in court. Ask the
attorney how many similar cases he’s handled and what the outcomes
were. Be forthright and direct and make it known that you expect the
same in return. If he doesn’t feel comfortable or doesn’t have the
experience to represent this type of case he will probably tell you
so.

“Is there any other approach that should be pursued other than a plea
bargain?

There are certainly other options short of having the case dismissed
(which is probably unlikely):

You can plead guilty and accept what the court decides is a fair
sentence

You can plead not guilty and testify in court as to why you feel you
should not be convicted of the alleged crime

You can plead “no contest” (which effectively means you are not
admitting to guilt but accept the court’s decision to punish you for
the crime)

Or, you could work something out in a plea bargain. In a plea bargain,
you can often get the offense removed from your record. Here’s how
it’s done:

Meet with the Prosecutor (be polite and be humble). Explain how a
conviction and fine would impose an undue hardship on you financially
and ask him if he would agree to let you attend an 8 hour defensive
driving course in lieu of a conviction. Often times the Prosecutor (an
elected official), in an effort to please the public and cut court
costs will agree to these terms rather than charge the state with the
bill of having the matter go to trial. If this is agreeable with the
state, usually the judge will suspend any fines (except court costs)
and the offense is usually removed from your record once you present
the certificate of completion to the court. This can result in some
significant savings in terms of insurance rates down the road. As I
said, there are other options but probably not any better ones.

You can check here for defensive driving schools in your area:

THE DEFENSIVE DRIVING SCHOOL 
http://www.drivingdirectory.com/va2.htm

“Can a letter from a Representative from Congress be of any help in
the matter?

Maybe, but this approach “can” backfire. In Virginian, where many
people have personal relationships with public figures, this option
might not be as effective as it would be in a smaller or more remote
jurisdiction. In fact, if the “Representative” who wrote the letter is
not of the same political school of thought as the Prosecutor or
Judge, such a move might even inflame the court rather than sway it.
One must be especially careful when pitting political clout against
sworn duty. That’s not to say that such a letter won’t have some
impact on your case or that someone in a high political position won’t
be successful in “calling in a favor” for you. The only thing that can
be said here is that if your integrity permits you to use a letter
like this for the purposes of getting out of trouble, it will be
anybody’s guess as to what the results from such a letter might be. In
truth, there’s no way to predict what impact (good or bad) a letter
that has not even been written yet might have. Personally, I say the
risk factor here is unofficially 50/50.

Finally, let me give you some advice: In the future if you are
tailgated, you don’t need to slam on your brakes or slow down to a
crawl or make any bizarre Evil Knievel maneuvers. Simply drive along
as you normally do and when someone speeds up to your bumper just
calmly TURN YOUR LEFT TURN SIGNAL ON. Now, drive away at your normal
speed and forget the guy behind you because I guarantee that if he is
sane, he will remain the appropriate number of car lengths behind you
from this point forward so as to insure both vehicles’ safety. This
method is a legal, non-aggressive approach and it not only works in
defending yourself against a tailgater, IT WORKS ALMOST 100% OF THE
TIME!

I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga



INFORMATION SOURCES

Defined above

SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

STATE BAR ASSOCIATIONS

VIRGINIA BAR ASSOCIATION

ATTORNEY CREDENTIALS

DEFENSIVE DRIVING SCHOOLS

Virginia reckless driving is often overcharged by state troopers and
county officers.  However, anytime an officer observes tailgaiting
(rear vehicle) and braking (front vehicle) from two vehicles in his
purvue, his immediate proclivity will be to cite both drivers for
reckless driving.  Indeed, even though the person in front being
tailgated is reacting to another driver, the issue is intention.

In this regard, I believe that the law is misconstrued by the
officers.  I believe tha the person tailgating should be charged with
Virginia reckless driving and person in front braking, if his
intentions are malicious, should be charged with aggressive driving. 
Virginia law does make a clear distinction distinction between these
two charges often lost by field officers.

http://www.boselawfirm.com/rd.html is a very in-depth article on
reckless driving in Virginia in terms everyone can understand.

On the issue of attorneys, I believe former officers and investigators
are the best attorneys for traffic cases.  Indeed, they have the
experience of helping the prosecution so they understand the officer's
makeup and dispositions.  They have been cross examined by the best
lawyers and therefore understand how and what will affect the police
officer on the stand.  Most importantly, former police officers who
are now attorneyt were trained by the academy.  This makes cross
examination interesting and content oriented.

BOSE LAW FIRM, PLLC
Sudeep Bose, Esq.
http://www.vatrafficlaw.com