In this case the client was stopped on Route 7 for driving 86mph in a 55mph zone.  They were driving to work as a 5th grade teacher and were simply running late.  The Virginia State Trooper wrote them a summons for reckless driving by speed for a court appearance in the Loudoun County General District Court.  What was tricky in this case is that the client had been stopped by this particular trooper and written a ticket a few weeks before from driving in the same area (driving to work again).  This was important because, as you can imagine, the trooper remembered them from before and this would certainly come up in court.

Given these facts we recommended our client take both a defensive driving course and a reckless driving course.  This mitigation would help us be in a better position to negotiate a reduction of the charge which is very important as it avoids the original misdemeanor reckless driving charge.  We also envisioned having to explain the prior ticket as well so we had our client provide information evidencing their employment so we could show our client is a teacher and takes the same road to work everyday.

By the time we got to court that prior ticket had not yet posted on our client's driving record.  The trooper had a busy docket and went straight to the courtroom so we were able to negotiate a reduction of the reckless driving charge to failure to obey a highway sign.  We are not required to disclose the prior ticket and simply went with what we had on the driving record and case mitigation.  Consequently, as far anyone new, this was our client's first ticket.   

Failure to Obey a Highway Sign is a substantial reduction as it avoids a misdemeanor conviction for reckless driving, vastly lowers the DMV points, and will fall off the driving record after 3 years (versus 11 years for reckless driving).  As you can see, sometimes we have to play a chess game with cases.  It's always important to consider hiring a traffic lawyer for reckless driving cases.