Fredericksburg DUI Classes

There are a number of options available to someone in need of Fredericksburg DUI classes. The primary DUI education program in Fredericksburg is administered through the VASAP office. Every jurisdiction in Virginia has a VASAP office, which stands for Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program. This is something that if an individual is sentenced to complete in the wake of being convicted of a DUI, they will have typically 20 hours to do. In these cases, a Fredericksburg DUI attorney can help guide and advise you throughout the process.

VASAP

The city of Fredericksburg, in those cases, runs the education class. Every locality in Virginia, whether it is a county or a city, falls under the jurisdiction of a VASAP office. In some cases, multiple cities and counties are served by the VASAP office. These offices are organs of the State of Virginia, and they are, in the case of Fredericksburg, run by the city. DUI courses primarily consist of education about the effects of alcohol both on the physiology of the person and on the behavior of an individual, as well as what impact that has in the community. This can be anything from films, victim impact panels, or lectures, which provide information to the person enrolled in the class.

Pre-Trial Classes

In some cases, it is advisable to pre-enroll with the VASAP program prior to the time that the case would come to court. Whether or not that makes sense to do is something that should be decided by the person’s attorney after they have had a full review of the case, and in light of the particular facts and circumstances of that case.

The VASAP program is mandatory if an individual is convicted of any kind of DUI. Virginia law says that upon conviction of a DUI, the court shall order a person to complete the VASAP classes. This is typically about 20 hours’ worth of classes. The person will not be able to successfully complete their DUI and have their driving privileges restored until the VASAP certifies that they have completed all of the classes successfully.

Driver Improvement Class

A person can always take traffic school class to help with the points they received as a consequence of the DUI. DUIs in Virginia cause a person to have six negative points put on their record. Taking a driver improvement class can add as many as four positive points to partially counteract those negative points.

However, this is entirely different than the alcohol education class. A driver improvement class cannot be taken in lieu of the VASAP classes, but in many cases, it is advisable to take that in addition to the alcohol education classes.

Online Courses

There are DUI online courses available for people to take, and in some cases, in advance of their case being heard by a court. In most cases, the most appropriate time for a DUI course to be taken is going to be post-conviction. But in some cases, it may be advantageous to take alcohol education or a DUI course through a private entity in advance of court. This is a decision that an individual would need to consult with their attorney about to determine whether it would be advisable in their particular case.

Victim Impact Panels

A victim impact panel is a class that individuals are sometimes required to attend. The panel consists of people whose lives have been harmed by a DUI. It may be people who have been convicted of a DUI or people who have lost a loved one in a DUI.

The panel discusses what happened in their lives as a consequence of the bad decisions of others. The idea behind these panels is to deter people from making bad choices related to drinking and driving in the future. Teaching the offender a lesson is the primary goal and role of a victim impact panel. The panels do not occur in advance of a conviction, but rather something that happens as a consequence of a DUI.

There are victim impact panels from time to time in Fredericksburg. If a person is convicted of a DUI and ordered into the VASAP program, they have to participate in one or more victim impact panels to successfully satisfy the requirements of the VASAP. The victim impact panels are administered by the VASAP program, which is a government program administered by the state.

The length of the program is not always easy to predict. Sometimes the person will be required to attend one victim impact panel. In other cases, they may be required to participate in more than one. Typically, it consists of one session which lasts for an hour or two.

In most cases, victim impact panels are administered during weekday evenings to allow the people who have been ordered into them the best opportunity to attend. Your attorney can help you arrange victim impact panels, as well as other classes, in a way that suits your schedule.