Quick guide to speeding tickets in Northampton County

Hello. I went to court recently for my speeding ticket in NH county and as this is the speeding trap capital of the world, thought I would share some things I gleaned because I saw a ton of differing information online before my court date.

First off, there are two different codes to watch out for on your court summons. If you have violation of VA code 46.2-870, this is called "improper driving" or a classic speeding ticket. If you have 46.2-852, 46.2-868, etc, this is for "reckless driving". In Virginia, if you are charged with reckless driving, you have to go to court. You cannot just call the payment line and pay the fine. Always plead no contest - this means that you acknowledge there is sufficient evidence to convict you of speeding, but have basically taken measures to mitigate the charge (see below).

Everyone who was there my day in court was caught for speeding along NH route 13, which is 55 mph. Northampton county has a system whereby if you are caught with VA code 46.2-870 you can take an online, 8 hour driving course, and have the charge dismissed after mailing the results of the course to the court (you get 4 months after your court date to do so). However, there is a caveat. You are only eligible for this program if you were going 20mph or less over the speed limit.

56mph-75mph: eligible to take drivers class, have charge dismissed as long as it is code 870. Probably better off taking the class before going to court and showing the results to the judge the same day, so you don't have to worry about mailing them the results.

75-79mph w/ code 46.2-870: this is a weird spot. You are charged with speeding and not reckless driving, but not eligible to take the course. The judge on my court date gave one guy with 76 mph the ability to take the course, but not a guy with 79 mph. It is possible he would have maybe dismissed the charge if the 79mph guy showed up with his own speedometer calibration (ie he thought he was going 74 via his cars speedometer while the radar showed 79) and had taken the course beforehand. Officers will often also take someone at 82-83 mph, and drop their charge down to 79 mph to avoid giving someone a reckless driving misdemeanor. If this happened to you, it is probably super unlikely you are going to qualify for the driving class dismissal option because the judge will view this as looking a gift horse in the teeth (ie you got improper driving when it could have been a misdemeanor).

>80 mph: charged with reckless driving (anything not VA code 870). This is when people decided to lawyer up and plead no contest. There was an obvious trend to this that I believe you could easily complete without a lawyer: 1. Get your vehicle speedometer calibrated, so that you could say you believed you were going slower than you were. 2. Take an 8 hour driving course- they have options on the website. 3. Print out your driving record and mention how this is completely out of character for you, you learned your lesson, beg for forgiveness, and basically how a misdemeanor would destroy your life (I am in law school, I am a naval officer, etc). Community service could probably help as well depending your speed.

Every single person with a lawyer (from 85 mph to 99 mph) followed this formula, and they all got knocked down to improper driving. The 99 mph guy had his license suspended in VA for 3 months, but still knocked to improper driving I think. The lawyer basically asked them questions "is this out of character?" "what are your goals" etc but they didn't do much outside of this, and you could say those parts for yourself easily enough. The fine costs were insane, around $500-1500, but the charge knocked to improper driving. In my mind, if you were going between 80-90mph, you could defend yourself, >90 it might be a good idea to lawyer up because you can tell the judge and the lawyers have a special relationship.

Someone plead guilty to reckless driving (I want to say around 90mph in a 55mph?) with no lawyer and got absolutely fucked- 3 months of a suspended license, $600 fine, misdemeanor charge, etc.

Note- court fees are going to cost you $100. So if you have a ticket for something like lack of inspection (~$100), or bad headlight, they will dismiss it if you have gotten it fixed, but the court fees will be $100, so it's a wash financially but you have to spend a day in court. You also won't need to explain why your headlight/inspection was not there, just tell them you have it fixed and provide proof and it will be dismissed.

Lastly, people say there is always a chance that the police won't show up. In NH county, you can fucking tell these guys show up. So if you have a 46.2-870 charge for like a 78 mph speeding ticket ($200), going to court is gonna do literally nothing for you, because you can't have the charge dismissed with the driving class, and court fees are gonna cost you $50-100 anyway. Better off just paying the fine and thanking god you didn't get a misdemeanor.

Sorry for the long post- hope this helps