This Mississippi Attorney practicing in Criminal Defense does not usually like to post regarding successful cases because every case is different and it seems wholly uninformative to boast about the results that I may have achieved for another client. However, not too long ago, I successfully defended a client against a charge of leaving the scene of an accident. It occurred to me that many people do not know how serious the crime of leaving the scene of an accident is. Thus, by telling this war story, I am also informing the reader.
Leaving the Scene of an Accident is a serious criminal charge in Mississippi. The severity of the crime depends upon the severity of the injuries sustained by the other persons involved in the accident. If no one is seriously injured, disfigured or killed, then it is a misdemeanor punishable by not less than thirty [30] days and not more than a year and/or a maximum fine of $5,000. If a criminal defendant is charged with leaving the scene of an accident where someone was seriously injured, disfigured or killed, that charge is a felony and it is punishable by not less than five [5] or more than twenty [20] years in prison and/or a maximum fine of $10,000. See Miss. Code Ann. § 63-3-401. Duties of drivers involved; sanctions.
The consequences of a leaving the scene of an accident are serious and it is certainly a charge that you should not try and defend yourself. A Mississippi criminal defense attorney can help because it is often a very defensible case. Because it deals with the action (or inaction) of a driver, the law only requires that a person comport with the rules of the road in order to avoid a conviction for Leaving the Scene. Since the facts of the case almost always involve an accident between two cars (there is some question as to whether or not a one car accident could give rise to this claim- more on that below) there is chance that one of the parties involved will lie to police. In my client's case, the complaining victim had lied about what happened in the collision in an effort to harm my client.
There is a very simple way to avoid ever worrying about being charged with Leaving the Scene of the Accident and my client had the good sense to do it and that (more than anything I did) is what got her charge dismissed by the court. My client called the 911 and asked the dispatcher what she should do. My client was faced with a difficult situation. She had not been involved in a collision but the other car's driver in an effort to harass my client had lost control and careened off the highway. The cars never collided, but there is an important terminology everyone should know about the statute involved. The language of the statute says "after being involved in an accident..."
The State of Mississippi has never had a case wherein a person has been convicted of Leaving the Scene of a one car accident, except of course when the driver injures the passenger's and then runs off. However, the statute implicitly recognizes that a person could run someone off the road or otherwise "be involved" in an accident without actually having collided with another car. Those cases have occurred in other states and other states have held that a person can be convicted even if they never collided with another car as long as there is evidence to prove that they knew they had been involved in the accident.
What you should take away from this is that you should always call 911 when there is a accident near your car. Of course, I do not mean every little fender bender. Even where you are scared of the other driver for some reason, or (as in my client's case) you know the driver and know that the driver wishes to hurt you, call 911 and the dispatcher will give you instructions. That conversation will be recorded and if you follow her instructions you will be able to avoid a conviction for Leaving the Scene of an Accident.
