One night, while you were driving on the highway, a
cop pulled you over and charged you with highway racing. What do you do? Do you
plead guilty just to get over with it? Or do you hire a Tampa traffic attorney
to help you with racing on highway defense?
In Florida, the rules for street racing or highway
racing are very strict. When you’re caught, you can face serious consequences,
which is really bad if you’re innocent. Street racing is a misdemeanor criminal
traffic offense similar to DUI. It will require you to appear in court. But
it’s not just that, you will have a criminal record too and that’s not
something you want to happen.
Under the Florida Statute 316.191, if you are
convicted, you will face a fine of $500 to $1,000 then a mandatory license
suspension of two years. On top of that, there’s a possibility that you can
face a year of jail time.
Now if you’ve been previously convicted,
particularly in the past five years, the fine will go up to $2,000 to $5,000
and the license suspension lasts for four years. Jail time is also up to a
year.
Many drivers are unaware of these fines and punishments,
so they immediately plead guilty to the charge. However, you should know that
under the law, you are innocent until proven guilty. The government must prove
the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. This right is huge for anyone who is
charged of any criminal offense. Basically, it means that if you were caught,
it doesn’t necessarily mean a conviction.
As you can see, the punishments are heavy. This is
why you need a Tampa traffic lawyer for your racing on highway defense. The
prosecutor will have to prove that you are indeed part of a race, meaning there
should be more than one vehicle and a competitor. The prosecutor has to do a
lot of work to prove that you are guilty.
And given the time that the prosecutor will use to
gather evidence against you, you will be better off spending that same amount
of time calling your Tampa traffic lawyer for your racing on highway defense.
An experienced lawyer will know how to handle these cases and prove the charges
against you are wrong.
Your Tampa traffic lawyer for your racing on
highway defense will negotiate a plea deal for you, to lessen the severity of
the punishment, like maybe less jail time or shorter license suspension. In any
case, it is important that you do not plead guilty and call a lawyer right
away.
Rick Silverman, P.A.
311 S Brevard Ave. Tampa, Florida 33606
(813) 871-1125
http://www.businesslocallistings.com
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