When you are charged with reckless driving, it is not just a traffic ticket. It is a Class 1 misdemeanor in Virginia, and you will have a permanent criminal record if convicted. Because of this, you may have to disclose your conviction on job applications, which may impact your job prospects when hunting for a job in Fairfax and throughout Northern Virginia.
When Do You Need to Disclose a Reckless Driving Conviction on a Job Application?
More and more employers are conducting a criminal background check or asking about a person’s criminal record on their job applications. When deciding whether you need to disclose your criminal record when applying for a job, it is important to read the question very carefully. You may be asked about your criminal background in a few ways, and this will affect how you answer. Here are some possible questions:
- Have you ever been charged with a crime? If you are asked this question, you would need to answer yes, because reckless driving is a criminal offense.
- Have you been convicted of a crime? If you were convicted of reckless driving, you would answer yes to this question. If the charge was dismissed or was reduced to a traffic violation that is not a misdemeanor, you most likely can answer no. However, if the charges were dismissed based on you completing community service or a driving school course, you do not have to disclose your reckless driving charge as long as it was dismissed or reduced to another offense after you completed the deferral conditions.
- Have you been convicted of a felony? Reckless driving charges are misdemeanors. However, in certain situations the same behavior that would be reckless driving could also be a felony. Depending on what you are charged with, you may or may not have to answer yes to this question.
It is important to keep in mind that reckless driving is most often a misdemeanor, not a felony. Many employers will consider a misdemeanor conviction in a much different light than if a person was convicted of a felony. In addition, some employers only ask about convictions for the last 10 years. If your conviction occurred earlier than that, you would not need to mention it in this situation.
However, a reckless driving conviction may prevent you from obtaining employment in certain professions that require driving. For example, driving instructors at schools and individuals with commercial licenses may not be able to keep their jobs. Likewise, it may be difficult to gain employment at jobs where driving is required by the employer (e.g. construction jobs, Uber/Lyft).
What Happens If You Fail to Disclose Your Reckless Driving Conviction?
If you are required to disclose your conviction and fail to do so, your employer may discover it when doing a criminal background check. Your answer would most likely be considered untruthful and may be grounds not to hire you or to terminate you. Employers are typically more concerned about deceit than the fact that you were once convicted of reckless driving, especially if it occurred years ago.
You can avoid some of the harsh penalties and long-term consequences of a reckless driving conviction by retaining an experienced reckless driving attorney in Fairfax. To learn how we would aggressively mount a defense to the charges you face, fill out our convenient online form to schedule a free consultation today.
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