Greenwich Evading Responsibility Arrests
Getting a ticket or getting arrested in Greenwich Connecticut for Evading Responsibility (also known as “Hit and Run”) under CGS § 14-224 puts your criminal record, driver’s license, and auto insurance rates all in jeopardy. As the best Greenwich Connecticut criminal attorneys and lawyers know, the primary concerns that police and prosecutors have with Greenwich Evading Responsibility arrests are two-fold: (1) WHY you left the scene of the accident (were you drunk, high, uninsured, or unlicensed to drive?), and (2) did you injure someone and leave the scene without assisting them or calling 911?
If the answers to these questions are “Yes” in your case, or if the answers are “No” but the police have still ticketed or arrested you in Greenwich Connecticut for Evading Responsibility, then you need to get informed, get in front of your case, and get prepared for your court date in Stamford Superior Court. The last thing that you need is a permanent criminal conviction record for what was either a lapse in good judgment or a minor fender bender. So if you’re facing a Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility arrest under CGS 14-224, then contact any of the best Greenwich Connecticut criminal law firms to start learning if and how you can get your charges dismissed quickly and cost-effectively.
Try to Squash the Case Before Your Greenwich Evading Arrest Gets to Court
Many Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility / Hit-and-Run cases begin with a phone call from someone whose car was damaged by another driver who took off and fled the scene. Usually these people get the license plate of the other driver and they provide it to the Greenwich Police Department or Connecticut State Troopers, who will either quickly track down the driver, call them at their home, or show up unannounced at their front door. As the best Greenwich Connecting Evading Responsibility lawyers also know, in the case of parking lot hit and run cases, video surveillance cameras also reveal the license plate numbers and sometimes photo images of who was driving the car, so that’s another way you can get caught.
But here’s some good news…and here’s where your top Greenwich Connecticut criminal lawyer can intervene with the police and perhaps convince them to NOT make an arrest, even if you did leave the scene. Lawyers can sometimes run interference for you, get the aggrieved party paid up for their damages, and downgrade the Greenwich Police Department investigation from a criminal to a civil matter. It takes a little bit of legal acrobatics, but this strategy can sometimes save you from the headache, embarrassment and drama of a full-blown criminal arrest for Evading Responsibility in Greenwich Connecticut, thereby preventing the online publication of your arrest and mug shot, or requiring any court appearances in criminal court.
Do I Need an Attorney to Fight a Greenwich Evading Responsibility Arrest or Ticket?
Definitely. Many Evading Responsibility arrests in Greenwich Connecticut begin with either an arrest or a summons ticket. And many times the police will try to de-escalate your stress and anxiety by promising you that “it’s no big deal” and the court will probably drop the case. But what many of the best Greenwich Connecticut criminal attorneys and lawyers know, however, is that police have little or no control over what happens in court. Stamford Superior Court prosecutors are in charge of your case now, and they are usually very suspect of the reason WHY you left the scene of the car accident. That’s why the top criminal lawyers in Greenwich Connecticut believe it’s important for your lawyer—not you—to attend that first meeting with Stamford prosecutors on your case. This allows your lawyers ample opportunity to try and set the table for what they hope will be a favorable disposition of your case…the dismissal of your Evading Responsibility / Hit-and-Run arrest. For years, these lawyers have defended Greenwich arrests for Evading Responsibility, and have taken some of these cases to trial, so they know exactly what the prosecutors concerns are and will immediately begin to try and disarm them to your benefit. And finally, don’t be fooled or let your guard down by the fact that you were just given a summons and were not booked and photographed at the police station. These “tickets” are still misdemeanor or felony charges—and are considered an “arrest” for Evading Responsibility under CGS 14-224. So be sure to not lose this ticket and bring it with you to your consultation with your attorney.
What Gets You Arrested for Evading Responsibility in Greenwich Connecticut?
Many of the best criminal lawyers and attorneys in Greenwich Connecticut know that you can get arrested for Evading Responsibility in Greenwich under CGS 14-224 if you leave the scene of a car accident which has caused property damage or personal injury, without providing your contact information to the injured party or property owner, or without calling the police. When you don’t do this, police have good cause to believe that you are running away to avoid getting caught for a DWI / DUI, or you were driving without a license, with no car insurance, no proper registration, or maybe you were driving a stolen car. Otherwise—as Greenwich police often think—why would you leave the scene?
While You May Just Get a Ticket, It’s Still a Criminal Arrest
Top criminal lawyers in Greenwich and Stamford Connecticut understand that Greenwich Police or State Troopers often make arrests for Evading Responsibility CGS § 14-224 by either taking you down to the police station and formally booking you, or just handing you a Greenwich “Misdemeanor Summons and Complaint” ticket for Evading Responsibility, without taking you down to the station. Understand that even though you didn’t get booked, fingerprinted and photographed, this is still a criminal arrest for a misdemeanor or felony. So it must be taken seriously, as the arrest record for Evading Responsibility in Greenwich Connecticut will show up on every employment background check until you and your top Greenwich Connecticut criminal defense lawyer get your Evading Responsibility arrest case dismissed and expunged.
Greenwich Arrests Report to Stamford Superior Court
Regardless of whether you are arrested or just ticketed for CGS 14-224 by the Greenwich Police Department, or Connecticut State Troopers on I-95 or the Merritt Parkway, you will be ordered to report to Stamford Superior Court to answer your charges. You see, the Town of Greenwich Connecticut does not have its own criminal courthouse, and all criminal arrests must go through Stamford Court. So when you’re looking for a lawyer to fight your Greenwich Connecticut arrest for Evading Responsibility, it’s a good idea to consult with a top Stamford or Greenwich Connecticut criminal law firm who appears regularly in Stamford criminal court.
Even a One-Car Accident Can Lead to a Greenwich Evading Responsibility Arrest
One interesting and yet hard-to-believe nuance of Connecticut Evading Responsibility law is that you can get arrested in Greenwich Connecticut for leaving the scene of a one-car accident. That’s right—even if no other car was involved, and just your car was damaged in the accident (for example, if you ran off the road and hit a tree and just damaged the car, not the tree)—then you are legally obligated to remain at the scene of the accident and notify the police. Many of the best Greenwich Connecticut criminal lawyers and attorneys have seen Evading Responsibility arrests for one-car accidents. As we say again and again, the police are determined to keep drunk drivers off the roads, and if it means arresting you for Hit and Run / Evading Responsibility for bumping into a guardrail on I-95 or the Merritt Parkway, then they believe it’s worth the hassle of all the police paperwork.
A Greenwich Evading Responsibility Arrest Can Be a Felony or Misdemeanor
Under the Connecticut penal law, Evading Responsibility CGS 14-224 has two subsections: a misdemeanor law and a felony law. Whether you are arrested in Greenwich Connecticut for the misdemeanor or felony subsection of the Evading Responsibility law depends solely on the damages and injuries you are accused to have caused. Felony Evading Responsibility charges follow when you cause “serious physical injury” to another person (which usually means broken bones are involved). Anything else is a misdemeanor, meaning non-serious physical injuries (bumps, bruises, or minor cuts), or any kind of property damage. Make sure your top Greenwich Connecticut criminal lawyer attorney reviews your police paperwork, as police and court clerks have been known to mistakenly charge you for the felony subsection instead of the misdemeanor section, causing headaches for your employment background checks.
Jail for Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility / Hit-and-Run Arrests?
Possibly. It depends on your criminal record and the severity of the injuries and property damage caused by your car accident. It also depends on whether you were adequately insured to cover the medical bills and property costs. Typically, a misdemeanor arrest for Evading Responsibility carries a maximum jail sentence of 1 year, probation, and fines of up to $600. A conviction for a felony Evading Responsibility arrest will result in up to 10 years of jail, a maximum $10,000 fine and probation. Convictions for subsequent Evading Responsibility arrests come with enhanced penalties. And on top of all this, and regardless of whether you’re found guilty of misdemeanor or felony Evading Responsibility, the Connecticut DMV will suspend your driver’s license for months or years, depending on the facts of your case. Keep reading to learn more about driver’s license consequences that come hand-in-hand with a Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility arrest.
First Things First: Convince the Greenwich Police You Weren’t Drunk Driving
As the best Greenwich Connecticut criminal lawyers and attorneys who regularly fight Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility arrests know, police and prosecutors almost always assume you left the scene of an accident because you were doing something illegal. Maybe you were drunk driving? Driving without a license? Didn’t have insurance? Didn’t’ have your IID installed? Or your Connecticut driver’s license was suspended? Otherwise…they think…why would you possibly hit and run or leave someone else injured on the side of the road without providing assistance or calling 911? It’s a reasonable and logical question that your top Greenwich Connecticut criminal attorney lawyer needs to address as soon as possible, preferably before police decide they want to arrest you or apply for an arrest warrant. Often, and in the case of teenagers or foreigners, people just get scared, panic and go home, especially if they are younger drivers, or it’s late at night and they are afraid of pulling over on a busy highway. Whatever the case, the best Greenwich Connecticut criminal law firms can reach out to the investigating police officers quickly and try to quash the criminal investigation by proving to them that you weren’t drunk driving in Greenwich or otherwise violating the law.
Driver’s License Suspensions for a Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility Arrest
If you’ve been arrested for Evading Responsibility / Hit-and-Run in Greenwich Connecticut in violation of C.G.S. § 14-224, then you need to understand your exposure and the possible penalties. Any of the best Greenwich Connecticut DMV criminal lawyers can explain to you that a guilty plea to a Greenwich Connecticut arrest for Evading Responsibility / Hit-and-Run comes with both criminal conviction and Connecticut DMV license suspension consequences. So if the prosecutor convinces you to plead guilty to Evading Responsibility, of if you’re found guilty at trial, you can have a permanent misdemeanor or felony conviction on your record, and your license will be suspended. The length of time of your Connecticut DMV suspension for any Evading Responsibility Guilty plea really depends on what kind of injuries or property damage you caused in the car accident. For serious physical injury / death cases, that’s a felony and a 1 year DMV driver’s license suspension (2 years for repeat Hit-and-Run offenders). For non-serious injuries and property damage, that’s a misdemeanor conviction which comes with a 90 days Connecticut driver’s license suspension (1 year for repeat hit-and-run offenders). For more on these penalties, check out CGS § 14-111.
If You Own the Car & Weren’t Driving, You Can Still Get Arrested for Evading!
One nuance of the Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility laws under CGS 14-224 is that if the police can prove your car was involved in a hit-and-run in Greenwich Connecticut, but they are not certain who was driving, you can still get arrested for Evading Responsibility even if you weren’t driving the car. You see, Connecticut penal law allows police to impute (or assume) control of a car to the owner. This shifts the burden of proving who was operating the vehicle to you, the owner, who then must convince police and prosecutors that they were not driving the car. And if you exercise your right to remain silent, then your chances of getting arrested in Greenwich Connecticut for Evading Responsibility / Hit-and-Run significantly increases. That’s why it’s critical that your top Greenwich Connecticut criminal defense lawyer attorney begins preserving alibi evidence for you in certain Evading Responsibility cases, such as gathering cell phone tower triangulation records, credit card receipts, and digital video surveillance recordings.
Is it Still Evading Responsibility / Hit-and-Run If I’m Involved in Just a One-Car Accident?
Believe it or not….Yes. Greenwich Connecticut Police arrest people all the time for getting into a one-car accident and leaving the scene of the property damage. And let’s face it…Greenwich Connecticut stone walls and landscaping can be worth tens of thousands of dollars! So you’ve caused property damage to someone’s stone wall, mailbox, landscaping, or town or city property in Greenwich like guardrails or street signs, somebody has to pay for the damage. And it’s going to be either you, the property owners, or someone’s insurance company who are going to pay. Realize that if an insurance company is going to get involved, then they need to determine fault and liability and the only way they can do that is with police reports. That’s the primary reason why you still need to report your accident to the Greenwich Police, even when it’s just a one-car accident. So if you’ve been involved or are being investigated for a hit and run in Greenwich Connecticut for a one-car accident, then contact a top criminal law firm in Greenwich Connecticut right away. They will try and smooth over your mistake in not calling the police and will try to make the case go away quickly.
Getting Your Greenwich Connecticut Evading Arrest Off the Internet & Google
The Greenwich Police Department adheres strictly to federal and state “FOIA” laws. That’s the Freedom of Information Act, which requires police to make your arrest report summaries, mug shots, full name and home address available to local online news websites such as The Greenwich Time, Greenwich Daily Voice, Greenwich Citizen, and Greenwich Patch. What the Greenwich Police and FOIA don’t concern themselves with, however, is just how devastating the publication of online news reports of your Greenwich Connecticut arrest for Evading Responsibility can be to your business and community reputations. And as many of the top Connecticut internet criminal lawyers know, once people in Greenwich start clicking these articles, your bad press climbs quickly in the Google search engine rankings, often coming up on the first page in any search of your name.
So can anything be done? Possibly. In 2011, the Mark Sherman Law Firm launched an innovative “internet scrubbing” practice group, determined to hold these Connecticut online news websites accountable for the damage they were doing to our client’s reputations. Our sole objective is to get your Connecticut arrest reports offline and off Google, as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. For more on our cutting edge internet / Google scrubbing practice, click here.
Fighting Your Greenwich CT Evading Responsibility Arrest in Stamford Court
Many of the top criminal lawyers and attorneys in Greenwich Connecticut understand that fighting a Greenwich Connecticut arrest for Evading Responsibility under CGS 14-224 requires experience and a thorough understanding of the multiple defense strategies available. You will be dealing with agitated victims who have suffered property damage, personal injury or both. You will working against the clock to preserve digital surveillance evidence, or blood evidence (to show the court you were not drunk or impaired by drugs). You will be negotiating with insurance companies who will be looking for information and wanting to take recorded statements from your clients (remember that lying to an insurance company is a separate crime under state and federal laws). And you will be dealing with state prosecutors who need to be persuaded to drop your Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility arrest. Managing all of these moving parts demands a balancing act that only the best Greenwich Connecticut criminal lawyers are accustomed to. So regardless of who you hire, make sure you sit with your top Greenwich Connecticut criminal defense attorney to craft the best defense strategy for your individual case circumstances.
Don’t Burn Your AR So Quickly – Get Your Evading Reduced to an Infraction
One option for getting your Greenwich Hit and Run Evading Responsibility arrest dismissed is to apply for Connecticut’s Pre-Trial “Accelerated Rehabilitation” Program, frequently called the “AR Program” in Connecticut courthouses. It’s your get-out-of-jail-free card, so to speak, and you only receive AR once in your lifetime (occasionally twice after 10 years under a recent change in the law). An inexperienced Greenwich Connecticut criminal lawyer—or a Greenwich Connecticut real estate, divorce, or personal injury lawyer who dabbles in criminal law—may try to quickly push you into applying for the AR Program. Not a great idea. While you may eventually have to use or “burn” your AR Program for a Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility arrest, it is almost always worth a few court appearances to try and convince the prosecutor to drop (or “nolle”) your Greenwich Evading Responsibility charge, or alternatively, get it reduced to an infraction called “Faliure to Stop and Show Insurance Card” under C.G.S. § 14-13(b). Anytime you can get your Connecticut Evading Responsibility arrest reduced to a Failure to Stop and Show infraction, jump on it, as saving your AR for something a bit more serious is always a good idea.
Auto Insurance Consequences
Finally, understand that automobile insurance carriers are deeply involved in Greenwich Connecticut arrests for Evading Responsibility. Whenever there is personal injury or property damage that involves an automobile, auto insurance adjusters and investigators swoop in alongside police to investigate what happened, how it happened, how much damage was done, and who is responsible for paying for it. If you have a pending arrest for a Greenwich Connecticut Evading Responsibility arrest, expect a flurry of phone calls and letters from multiple insurance companies, who will be asking questions that could expose you to criminal liability. They will want recorded statements, which can be turned over to the police and prosecutors. So if and when this happens, it’s always a good idea to direct all such correspondence to your top Greenwich Connecticut criminal lawyer who can protect you, and maybe even keep your insurance premiums from surging.
Contact a Greenwich Connecticut Criminal Lawyer Today
So if you are being investigated, or have been ticketed or arrested in Greenwich Connecticut for Evading Responsibility CGS § 14-224, then get in touch with any of the Mark Sherman Law criminal lawyers as soon as possible. We are all about results: helping you avoid an arrest, or getting your Greenwich Evading Responsibility / Hit-and-Run arrest dismissed quickly and cost-effectively. Greenwich Police have more important work to do than clean up fender benders, so let us run interference for you, and handle the headache of your Greenwich Evading Responsibility case. And don’t just take our word for it— read what our former Evading Responsibility clients have to say about our firm on the Avvo.com certified review website. Call us today for a consultation. We are available 24/7 to take your call at (203) 358-4700.