Reckless Driving: Reckless Driving Charge In Virginia, Live in New Orleans

My question involves a reckless driving ticket from the State of: Virginia

Hi,

I have gotten myself into a huge mess, and really am at wit's end about what to do. I am grateful for some legal advice and help.

I got into an accident on I-95 passing through Richmond, VA. Going right at the speed limit with traffic and all of a sudden the car pulled toward left and I over-corrected and fishtailed out of control. Hitting the barrier wall and ended up on the shoulder. No one else was involved and I was not hurt. After collecting some thought I think the tire had lost pressure causing my the swerve.

The officer came up and questioned my driving and refused to believe that I wasn't doing anything wrong. He issued a reckless driving charge for failure to maintain proper control.

Now the kicker. I had an expired license from Louisiana, my car registration had just expired in August 08, and I hadn't had insurance for over a year. So he had to add the no valid license and expired registration to the reckless driving.

I know that this is a series of stupid and wrong decisions. Living in New Orleans, I mostly biked around and rarely drove. Being an graduation student, I don't have much money. I had not even consider driving to visit my brother in NY until Hurricane Gustav was imminent. I procrastinated and did not have my stuff in order before just hopping into the car.

Being out of town and in a dire situation, the tow truck driver initially seemed helpful, and left the car at his lot and dropped me off at a motel (traveling with my two cats) when the accident occurred on Saturday afternoon. The car itself could not start but did not look beyond repair. I ended up staying in the motel until Monday morning to see if I could get the car back into driving condition. As I really didn't have many other options. The whole experience was surreal. The location of the motel was in a seedy part of town with drug-trafficking and strip clubs, and random knocks on the door happened quite a few times over the weekend. Came Monday morning, and the same "nice" tow truck driver said the mechanic came and looked at the car and determined it was going to be too expensive to repair and demanded some money and the title to the car for junking it. I then hopped into a cab with my two cats to meet him at the lot. Between the cab driver hurrying me and pressure from the tow truck driver, I decided to just cut my losses and plead for a family friend to come get me from DC. In the process of being hurried off, I failed to get the license plate off the car.

Additional kicker - 3 years ago, I had a very similar situation while moving to DC after Hurricane Katrina. During one of my trips to move what's left of my belongings, I hydroplaned on a I-81 on-ramp in Harrisonburg. Everything was in order, and I retained a lawyer to represent me. He had me take the driver safety course and took care of the same reckless driving charge.

So I am looking at a 2nd offense and this time with way more trouble attached. I have been talking to friends who practice law and those who are more familiar on this type of issue. But haven't arrived at a consensus about what to do. My instinct is to retain a lawyer in the Richmond area to try to get the least horrible results. But my good friend who had many experiences with legal issues warn of the cost/benefits of retaining a lawyer who might not be able to do much given the circumstances. He said I may as well just eat it since the fines would probably offset the legal fees for retaining a lawyer.

I am not sure what to do. Does anyone have a good recommendation for a lawyer in the Richmond area? I doubt an ordinary traffic court lawyer is going to have enough pull to do much about this. But I am really a decent person who made bad decisions. I have come to terms with the potential consequences but really do not want to see jail time. Please, if someone can give me some pointers.

-Hao-Peng