COVID-19: Ticketing Lax No More!

Remember March 12, 2020 when Governor Northam declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19?

It feels like a lifetime ago, but in reality only 5 months have passed since we began this new style of life. The first couple of months, the roads were empty. You could enter a major artery and not come across another driver for several minutes or several miles. Naturally, traffic enforcement went down due to fewer cars on the road. You could ignore all traffic signs and lights and not be at risk of an accident or hitting a pedestrian.

For the practice of law, attorneys were allowed under Paragraph 8 of the Virginia Supreme Court Judicial Emergency Order to continue operating as an essential business. This didn’t mean that the Yoon Law Firm was always in the office. For the safety of staff and attorneys, we worked remotely. But those days I did come into the office, I was rarely met with delay by traffic or lights. Where were the officers? Probably attending to the increase in domestic violence in homes due to higher consumption of alcohol. For the most part, officers were not pullng anyone over that was speeding less than 100 mph. That’s right, read my other post about how people who were only sort of recklessly driving were almost invisible during that time.

Fast forward to now. We’re in Phase 3, daycares and summer camps are open, bars are open, non-essential workers are back at work collecting paychecks. Traffic has increased and the police are no longer lax on issuing tickets. If you break the law, do something unsafe, or exhibit signs of intoxication while driving, you’re most likely going to get stopped, ticketed, or arrested and probably will need a lawyer.

You know I’m happy to talk to you, but first realize that you might be in a situation that you could have avoided. If you could not have avoided it, you still might face some serious consequences and you will need a lawyer to help you nagivate yourself into a better situation.

Remember, officers are writing tickets again and you should be more careful.