It Wasn't My Car!

If you are accused of a traffic violation or misdemeanor vehicle offense, you may not get far with the argument that “it wasn’t my car!”

Video Transcription

Hello, my name is Andrew Flusche. I’m a Virginia traffic lawyer. Today I wanted to talk to you about one thing that clients tell me a lot when I’m talking to them about their traffic case. I hear, “It wasn’t my car. The officer must have gotten somebody else.” That happens a lot when there is a radar or laser involved. Clients, a lot of times, think that the officer must have gotten another vehicle. But let me tell you, that argument is very hard to prevail with in court.

In most cases, the officer is going to come into court and swear under oath that they were able to clock you with their laser or radar device, or were pacing you with their vehicle, that they’re 100% sure it was your car, that they then stopped the car that they were targeting, and identified you as the driver with your driver’s license. If they can say all that under oath, that’s enough to establish the identity of the vehicle that’s alleged to have committed some kind of violation.

Now, if there is a question (in some cases the officer may have clocked you and then maybe lost sight of your vehicle due to having to turn around, or maybe there was heavy traffic and they couldn’t quite keep up with you to go get you to pull you over) then we could have an issue. But in a lot of cases, especially out on the interstate where cars are going by, usually the officer is able to testify that they were able to see you and never lost sight of you and are certain that it was your car.

So that’s not to say that it’s not something to look at. We certainly would want to look at that if you think that maybe the officer did get someone else. But in a lot of cases the argument that “it wasn’t me” is not going to get us very far in a traffic case.