Naples Reckless Driving Lawyer

If you’re accused of engaging in reckless driving on the road, you need to engage as professionally as possible with Floridian police officers. Officers who pull you over may take any opportunity to compound the charges leveled against you.

With that in mind, remember that you have the right to ask why you’re being detained when interacting with a police officer. You also have the right to remain silent in the face of a reckless driving arrest. You can contact a legal representative as soon as you enter into police custody if you want to prevent police officers from misrepresenting your case.

Contacting an attorney does not, as police officers might suggest, mean that you are guilty of roadway misconduct. Instead, it puts distance between you and the law enforcement representatives who might want to misinterpret your case.

The consequences you face for alleged reckless driving become more severe in cases involving grievous personal injury and alleged drinking behind the wheel. If, for example, your reckless driving charge includes serious bodily injury, you may face a third-degree felony alongside up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines.

If you’re accused of a DUI along with reckless driving, Florida will require you to complete a DUI education course alongside the other fines and jail time attributed to your case.

Once you have a reckless driving lawyer from Naples on your side, you can challenge the accusations leveled against you. The best way to fight back against charges of reckless driving is to:

• Assess the nature of the equipment used to detect your reckless driving for defects
• Challenge the reason a police officer chose to pull you over
• Use evidence to indicate that your behavior on the road wasn’t in violation of the law
• Provide evidence of an inaccurate speedometer

You may also have the opportunity to pursue a plea deal, particularly if you’ve never been accused of reckless driving before. If you enter into a plea deal in the wake of reckless driving charges, you may have the opportunity to reduce your sentence and fines.

If police officers have the opportunity to compound the charges brought against you, your reckless driving charges may join additional charges on your criminal record. The best way to keep these charges off of your record is to challenge them in criminal court. There is a chance, however, that your first attempt to challenge these charges may be unsuccessful.

You can, however, appeal a court’s decision with the help of a Naples reckless driving attorney. The appeals process does require you to pay a fee, but it gives you the opportunity to present new evidence challenging the charges on your criminal record.

If you choose not to appeal your reckless driving charges, there may come a point where you can have the record of those charges expunged. You can collaborate with the Law Office of Robert H. Hanaford to determine when that time may come and whether or not it may benefit your personal and professional life.