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Editor: Bob Battle
Profession: DUI Defense Lawyer

Category: Virginia Reckless Driving/Speeding

Two Virginia lawyers were so anxious to challenge the Constitutionality of the new Civil Remedial Fee for traffic convictions that they filed without the one important necessity before the Henrico County General District Court could consider their Motion- a client! One of the basic tenets of the American judicial system, something that a lawyer learns in their first week in law school, is that the courts only hear actual pending "cases and controversies." Thus, there must be a client with legal "standing" to raise the issue. Judges and courts have never been in the business of issuing advisory opinions.

The new Virginia Civil Remedial Remedial Fees for Traffic Offenses law only applies to those charged with Reckless Driving Speeding, DUI, or one of the other included offenses after July 1, 2007, who are also licensed in Virginia. Thus, it will be late July/early August before the courts will be flooded with cases that the mandatory huge fines will be added to on top of what happens in court.

Why are lawyers like Virginia Reckless Speeding Lawyer Bob Battle chomping at the bit to attack these huge fees? Easy- we feel these laws, which unfairly apply only to Virginia drivers, are unconstitutional. The fees violate the United States Constitution for two reasons: they are a separate and additional punishment and therefore violate the Double Jeopardy Clause, and they violate the Equal Protection Clause because they apply only to Virginians and not to out-of-state residents. Furthermore, there is an argument that the laws violate the Virginia State Constitution because the fines are not going to Virginia's Literary Fund, in violation of Article VIII, Section 8 of the Virginia Constitution.