Our son was returning home one evening and was involved in a two car accident. According to him he had a green light and was proceeding down the road when a gentlemen ran a red light and our son hit him. Both our son and the other driver were taken to local hospitals. The other driver died several days later from his injuries. After the police investigation, and multiple conflicting witnesses (some say our son had a green light, others say he didn't), our son has been charged with failing to obey a traffic signal. Because of his age, this case will be heard in the Juvenile courts.
We've talked with an attorney who has told us that it's not worth us paying for an attorney. He says that this is a simple traffic case and that his legal fees would far surpass any traffic fines levied on our son. The jurisdiction that we live in in Virginia does not allow witnesses names to be given, so we've been told to file a motion for discovery. Not being an attorney, we don't know how to do this or what forms need to be filled out. But, we want to get all the information (was the other driver wearing a seat belt, did he have alcohol/drugs in his system, was he a licensed driver, what did the witnesses see/say, etc.) on the accident that we can so that we can be fully prepared for the court date.
The family of the other driver has served us with a wrongful death lawsuit. These papers arrived roughly one week before we received the traffic court papers. We find it interesting that they brought a lawsuit against our son before he was ever even charged with any type of traffic offense. The attorney that we talked with has told us that unless our son pleads guilt to the traffic offense, nothing from the traffic case can be used in the wrongful death suit. Is this true? And shouldn't we fight the traffic case with everything that we can find so that our son is found not guilty and therefore can not be found guilt in the wrongful death suit? Any help will be greatly appreciated! We're trying to prepare our son for anything/everything that could happen, but he's having a really hard time with this, and we really don't know what to expect.
We've talked with an attorney who has told us that it's not worth us paying for an attorney. He says that this is a simple traffic case and that his legal fees would far surpass any traffic fines levied on our son. The jurisdiction that we live in in Virginia does not allow witnesses names to be given, so we've been told to file a motion for discovery. Not being an attorney, we don't know how to do this or what forms need to be filled out. But, we want to get all the information (was the other driver wearing a seat belt, did he have alcohol/drugs in his system, was he a licensed driver, what did the witnesses see/say, etc.) on the accident that we can so that we can be fully prepared for the court date.
The family of the other driver has served us with a wrongful death lawsuit. These papers arrived roughly one week before we received the traffic court papers. We find it interesting that they brought a lawsuit against our son before he was ever even charged with any type of traffic offense. The attorney that we talked with has told us that unless our son pleads guilt to the traffic offense, nothing from the traffic case can be used in the wrongful death suit. Is this true? And shouldn't we fight the traffic case with everything that we can find so that our son is found not guilty and therefore can not be found guilt in the wrongful death suit? Any help will be greatly appreciated! We're trying to prepare our son for anything/everything that could happen, but he's having a really hard time with this, and we really don't know what to expect.
