Turn Calls/Inquiries into Signed Retainer
Agreements and Cash in the Bank… Remotely
interviewer Do you tend to see more DUI cases or the reckless speeding cases?
Robert By sheer volume, and, I don’t know if the callers may have seen something, but it’s just pitiful. Reckless speeding by far and away gets charged much more than DUI in Virginia. Right now, I’ve been the biggest critic. I’ve got t-shirts that say “Virginia is for speed traps” and on the back looks like a speed limit sign that says “I can’t drive 65” on it.
In Virginia, anything 20 miles above the speed limit or anything above 80 at any speed limit can and usually will be charged as reckless driving speeding, which is a Class 1 criminal misdemeanor. Once people are convicted, Virginia has no expungement procedure ever for convictions. Virginia only allows expungements for people who are innocent of the charges.
Some of this stuff has gotten national attention, the Mid-Atlantic AAA actually came out and not only criticized Virginia for the massive amount of speeding and reckless driving speeding tickets, but they singled out one area that’s pretty close to where I am in Richmond. Hopewell, Virginia is a town that on one of the interstate highways, Interstate 295, which runs from Petersburg, east-west, sort of a beltway in the Petersburg area and allows people to head toward Richmond Airport. There are less than two miles of that entire highway that is located in Hopewell.
Well, Hopewell came up with an idea. About two years ago, exactly, Virginia changed the maximum speed limit from 65 to 70. Now, one thing I did, because I saw this coming, is I issued a press release. I interviewed on the local CBS affiliate saying that a lot of people are thinking “Hey, we can now go faster in Virginia” whereas this was the ultimate sucker trap.
Anything above 80 was still reckless driving speeding. So now 11 miles above the speed limit, going 81 in a 70, can be charged as reckless speeding. Most people think you get 10 miles per hour on the highway before you’re in trouble.
That section of Hopewell, for example, I think it was 2010 where they collected $1.75 million in traffic fines and costs out of a total of $2 million assessed. It’s been referred to as the “Million Dollar Mile”. In fact, it’s the “Two Million Dollar Mile”. The state troopers and everywhere in the Richmond area, they’re out there 24/7. It’s a big revenue thing.
interviewer It also seems to ups the ante. Not mentioning the criminal proceedings, just for going a bit faster than the speed limit.
Robert It really is the defense lawyers’ relief act. The reality is most of the judges and prosecutors are pretty reasonable. If you’ve got a client where some places, it’s below 90. Other places it’s below 95. Some judges here and there, if there are extenuation circumstances, I’ve got them to consider doing it for 100 miles per hour.
In general, most of the people charged, are doing somewhere in the 80s. If someone has a decent record, the prosecutors are willing to work it out to something else without the person needing to come to court. In most of my reckless driving speeding cases, I never meet the person. I talk to them on the phone, they hire me. I tell them what they need to provide me for court. I go in and work it out without them having to come to court. Obviously, that’s another service we’re providing so these people don’t need to travel to the middle of nowhere to defend themselves in court.
interviewer In these reckless speeding cases, do you see a lot in school zones where the speed limit is 25 and a person is driving 46 mph?
Robert Not as much because that would be covered by a local police officer who is doing many other things and it’s only limited time and it’s local traffic. Really, where they nail people is on the interstate highways where people see the 75 sign and the average flow of traffic is going to be 77 or 78 miles per hour. So if someone goes to pass another person, they’re going to be in the reckless driving speeding zone. It really is like spearing fish in a barrel for these police officers.
interviewer Interesting. Okay. I wanted to switch gears. I don’t know if the listeners know, but I recently met up with you a couple weeks ago at a Dan Kennedy marketing conference. We had talked about what you do and I very quickly got to realize that you’re heavily into the marketing of your practice and you also stand apart from just about any attorney I’ve spoken to because you seem to be much more successful than a lot of the guys I speak to.
I recently did a survey of about 100 attorneys who were pretty much all criminal defense attorneys. The top issues they told me were that they were frustrated because they’re barely making enough to make ends meet, they want more time with their families, they’re working themselves to death and they just feel like the whole process is frustrating and unfair. They went to school to be attorneys, which is what they wanted to do, but they’re fighting for their financial lives.
Robert Sure.