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Corinne J. Magee

Corinne J. Magee didn’t hesitate once she perceived the potential impact of the civil remedial fees approved by the General Assembly this year.

“I want to be in the midst of things, and I knew it was an issue that needed to be addressed immediately,” she said.

Before the law took effect on July 1, she produced a draft “Motion to Declare Civil Penalties Unconstitutional” and posted it on the electronic mailing list for members of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. That first draft contended that Virginia Code § 46.2-206.1 violated the state and federal guarantees of equal protection of the law because it applied to Virginia residents, but not to out-of-state drivers.

Her VACDL colleagues suggested other legal theories, which she incorporated into revised versions of the motion as a political firestorm developed over the fees. Others simply lifted her motion, almost verbatim, and filed it in their cases. That was fine with Magee.

“The principle of law is a whole lot more important than who’s making the argument,” she said.

She said she was surprised but gratified by the controversy that developed. Although judges continue to disagree on the merits of the equal protection argument, the trend appears to be in favor upholding the constitutionality of the statute. Because of the public reaction, “I think this is going to end up being resolved more by the legislature” than by the courts, she said.

Her challenge to the remedial fees was her second constitutional attack on a Virginia law. She convinced a general district judge in July 2005 that state drunken driving laws create a presumption of guilt, but no other judge has agreed, although the issue is awaiting action by the Supreme Court of Virginia. The lower court ruling also created a question of what should happen when a general district judge declares a law unconstitutional. The General Assembly responded by giving, in effect, a right of appeal to the prosecution in such circumstances.

Magee joined the Fairfax County prosecutor’s office in 1981 after a stint as a staff attorney for the Rhode Island Supreme Court. She left prosecution for a criminal defense practice in McLean in 1987. It remains “an adventure every single day,” she said. “There’s always something coming out of these courtrooms that’s wackier than anything you could see on TV or read in the papers.”

Biography

Education: B.A., University of Minnesota, 1973; George Washington University law school, J.D., 1979

Practice Area: Criminal defense

Achievement: A leader in the constitutional challenge to civil remedial fees as a way of raising money for state transportation.

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