Reckless driving is a serious criminal charge with possible consequences to security clearance, insurance costs and to one’s career. It is one of the most serious driving motor vehicle tickets. A person who drives a vehicle in reckless disregard for the rights and safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving.

Irresponsible driving includes racing of vehicles on public roads and highways, speeding or driving while under the influence (but not drunk), having too many passengers in the automobile, cutting in and out of traffic, failure to yield to other vehicles and driving with a suspended or revoked licensed. Some police officers charge a driver with reckless driving when a driver was negligent. You simply need more than negligence to satisfy the intent requirement.

Reckless driving is a crime of opinion. It is hard to prove if the Judge applies the proper standard. There must be a showing of criminal intent, and its one person's word against another. Persons charged with careless driving shall have their license suspended for no less than 30 days. The person being charged of reckless driving has to appear in court and bail is often set in criminal traffic cases. When another person is killed as the result of reckless driving practice, the offending driver may be prosecuted for vehicular homicide which is punishable by imprisonment and a fine. In order to charge someone with aggressive driving, the prosecutor must show that a driver did not care about the harm resulting form his driving and that the driver should have realized such driving posed a hazard. If convicted for reckless driving you could be imprisoned up to one year in jail. You will have a criminal record and your ability to get a commercial driver’s license or other specialized driver’s licenses will be impaired. Your ability to obtain insurance in the future will also be affected but only for a limited time. Therefore, it is important that you take the charge seriously and hire a good lawyer to represent you.

You are charged with a criminal offense. If possible, you should hire an attorney before you make the choice to plead guilty. With this type of offense, the lawyer's greatest potential value is in negotiating a more favorable charge prior to the entry of a guilty plea. In this case, your attorney could attempt to negotiate a plea bargain.