Will the judge have my out-of-state driving record?
Not usually. The officer who wrote you a ticket would normally pull your Virginia driving transcript, and he will have that record at court to show the judge. It’s easy for the officers to pull Virginia records.
If you have a license from another state, the officer will have that noted on the ticket, but he will not usually pull that out-of-state record.
What that means is if you’re trying to ask for a break from the judge it would be on you to produce your driving record from out-of-state to show that you deserve a break. Most judges are not going to simply give you a break on a case without knowing something about your prior record to know if you have a pattern of similar conduct. For example, in a speeding case the judge normally is going to want to know if you have prior speeding tickets and the same thing with reckless driving. He’s going to want to know if have you had prior reckless driving or other tickets in general to know if you deserve a break on this case.
If you’re from out-of-state and get a Virginia speeding ticket, the best course of action is to pull your own driving record to bring to court. If you hire me as your attorney, that is something we do for clients as part of my representation. I see it as my job as your attorney to prepare the case in full and part of that preparation is obtaining your driving record, so we can show the judge that you deserve a break on a case.
photo credit: redjar
