Law Office Daniel J Miller - June 2021

Law Office Daniel J Miller - June 2021

INYOUR DEFENSE

JUNE 2021

757.852.3000 | LegalDefense.com

GET OUT AND EXPERIENCE THE WORLD Before You Go to College or Grad School

If I’m being honest with myself, I don’t think I was mature enough to go to college right after high school. I did go, because there was a certain expectation that I continue with my education, even if I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, but I probably spent more time with friends at social functions than I did attending classes or studying. Don’t get me wrong, the social aspect of college — making new relationships and learning how to interact with other people from different backgrounds — is important. However, if you want to get the full benefit that a college education provides, it’s sometimes a good idea to take some time off, do a little growing up, and figure out what you want to do before you take your next steps in your education. I think that also goes for college graduates who are thinking about graduate school, medical school, or law school. This past month, high school students and college students across the country received their degrees and have begun forging the next chapters of their lives. Some of them are assured in their next moves, and others are undoubtedly less certain. Regardless of how certain you feel (or, if you’re the parent of a recent grad reading this, how certain your child feels), I think that anyone can benefit from getting out and seeing the world before they make their final decision. It certainly worked for me. I had seven years of life between college and law school. Along with traveling with a rock band, I worked in residential construction, did traveling tradeshow installation and was a warehouseman in a rubber hose factory. Seven years is a good amount of time to think about what you want for a career. Some students may admittedly not need that long, but I think any amount of time, doing any number of things, will bring recent grads the clarity they need to make a confident decision about their career and their life. It’s crazy to me that high school students, when they’re just 17 or 18 years old, are expected to make a decision about what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Why does our society expect these kids to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to send themselves to a

university where they can get a degree that they might decide later that they don’t actually want?

College (and graduate school, for that matter) is a great investment when made at the proper time. No student should feel as though they wasted time and money pursuing a degree they don’t want. The best solution I can think of is to let students take the time they need to figure out what they want to do. It can only benefit them, and our society at large, to pursue a career they’re truly passionate about, once they figure out what those passions are. To all the recent graduates from high school and college this year, I wish you well in your next steps. Don’t feel rushed to have everything figured out right away. Take your time to decide what you want to do, and I promise your future will be better for it. – Daniel J. Miller

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With the U.S. Open coming up in June (barring any major COVID-19- related developments), the participants are sure to leave audiences in awe of their explosive drives. While “explosive” in this context doesn’t mean anything is actually exploding, there is a precedent for golf balls that literally explode. In fact, that precedent led to the creation of a pretty interesting state law in Massachusetts: No one is allowed to sell exploding golf balls. According to Chapter 148, Section 55 of the General Laws of Massachusetts, “Anyone who sells or knowingly uses … a golf ball containing any acid, fluid, gas, or other substance tending to cause the ball to explode” can be fined $500 for the first offense and up to $1,000 or imprisoned for a year for any offense after that. You would think that the existence of this law means that at some point, people were just smacking exploding golf balls around the Bay State before the lawmen kiboshed it. However, the truth is a little more nuanced. While it’s unknown what exactly prompted the legislation, there are a few clues as to what sorts of incidents Massachusetts governments were trying to avoid. The first clue is that prior to the late 1960s and early 1970s, golf balls were actually manufactured with a caustic liquid at the center. This led to the unforeseen injury of a boy named William J. in 1912, who, while “dissecting” a golf D on ’ t G et C aught R aging B ehind the W heel EXPLOSIVE BALLS (AT LEAST IN MASSACHUSETTS) ARE NOT E xplosive S wings A re A llowed on the G olf C ourse

ball, ruptured the rubber fluid sack at the center. Some of the liquid got in his eye and caused permanent damage to his sight, despite multiple visits to the doctor. Even though golf ball manufacturers stopped using caustic liquids in the centers of their golf balls in the 1920s, the liquid centers of golf balls made in the following decades could still cause harm. If someone dissected a golf ball and ruptured the fluid sack of one of these later balls, the crystalline material within could still cause injuries. Fortunately, solid core golf balls became common during the 1970s, removing liquid core golf balls from the course for good.

However, even though they’re gone, their legacy lives on in this strange Massachusetts law.

THE PENALTIES FOR AGGRESSIVE AND RECKLESS DRIVING

Whether you’ve seen it on the road or been guilty of it yourself, road rage is easy to spot — but it may be a bit difficult to define. The term “road rage” doesn’t appear in the relevant sections of Virginia law, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be penalized for it by law enforcement. When you’re guilty of road rage, your behavior typically falls under one of two different charges: aggressive driving or reckless driving. According to Section 46.2-868.1 of the Code of Virginia, “Aggressive driving covers a number of different behaviors, including but not limited to following another vehicle too closely, failing to observe lanes marked for traffic and stopping suddenly on highways.” Aggressive driving is punished as a Class 2 misdemeanor, unless the driver intended to harm another driver, in which case it would be considered a more serious Class 1 misdemeanor. Someone guilty of reckless driving is defined by Section 46.2-852 as “any person who drives a vehicle on any highway recklessly or at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger the life, limb or property of any person” regardless of speed limits. Reckless driving is punished as a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Reckless driving charges are far more common than aggressive driving charges, which means that even if you’re only guilty of aggressive driving, you might be charged with reckless driving instead. While the penalties for a Class 2 misdemeanor can be serious (up to $1,000 in fines and up to six months in jail), the penalties for a Class 1 misdemeanor are far steeper. If a judge finds you guilty of reckless driving, you could be facing a fine of up to $2,500, a jail sentence of up to a year, up to a six-month license suspension, and a criminal record. If you encounter a driver who’s “raging” on the road, it’s best to just avoid them. However, if you’re charged with either aggressive driving or reckless driving, be sure to contact the legal team at the Law Offices of Daniel J. Miller at (757) 852-3000 to ensure you get a fair shake in your case.

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CAN I EXPUNGE A CRIME FROM MY RECORD? Reentering the World with a Clean Slate

A criminal record can make it considerably harder for you to find housing, find gainful employment, and generally live a decent quality of life. Removing the albatross that is a criminal record from around your neck can be difficult, but it is not impossible. With the help of an experienced criminal defense attorney, you might be able to get your criminal record expunged. Expungement is the process by which the court makes your criminal record invisible to the public eye. This means that when employers, banks, or lenders do background checks, they won’t be able to see your record, and it won’t factor into their decision to hire you or approve you for a loan. You can also typically tell people that you’ve never been arrested or committed a crime if your record has been expunged.

That said, however, it’s much more difficult to have your record expunged if you were actually convicted. The only way expungement is possible in that case is if you were convicted of a crime you didn’t commit and were pardoned as a result. On a similar note, if you were convicted of a felony but the court decided to reverse or dismiss the case, you can request that DNA evidence be purged from the state DNA >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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