Year after rule change, 1 in 6 driver's licenses suspended in Virginia

The Legal Aid Justice Center reported Wednesday that as of last month, there were 974,349 suspended licenses in the state, due at least in part to court debt. Almost two-thirds of that number were suspensions solely for court debt.

The figure is roughly the same as a year earlier. The most readily available and comparable number from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday was for Sept. 3, 2016, when there were 977,891 suspended licenses in the state.

“It appears that these reforms have done little, if anything, to stem the breathtaking current of Virginians losing their licenses,” the center says. From November 2016 to last October there was an average of 835 new suspensions due to court debt each day, says the report.

The center contends that, “Driver’s license suspension for unpaid court debt is a blunt instrument. Under Virginia law, the hammer descends automatically whenever a person defaults on court debt, regardless of the reason for such default.”

The Charlottesville-based organization filed a class action lawsuit over the suspensions in July 2016 that was ultimately dismissed. It alleged the license suspensions of Virginians unable to pay court fines and costs — when those who can afford to pay keep their licenses — is discriminatory and violates constitutional protections.

Changes adopted by the Virginia Supreme Court took effect last February that, among other things, require all courts in the state to offer defendants unable to pay court fines and costs within 30 days deferred or installment payment plans before suspending their licenses.

The General Assembly also approved legislation to establish a standardized, statewide policy allowing deferred payment plans so defendants could pay fines and court costs over time without losing the right to drive — but last year the lawmakers rejected former Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s request to scrap the automatic suspension policy altogether.

Since the changes by the legislature and the justices, the center reviewed the payment plan policies in 116 general district courts across the state and of those, “not one gives any indication of how it evaluates ability to pay, and correspondingly, the inability to pay.”

“Most alarmingly, significant numbers of courts fail to consider debtors’ financial situations or provide low-income debtors with alternatives to rigid payment plan terms. The results can be devastating for individuals and their families forced to pay beyond their abilities,” says the center.

Among the center’s findings: More than one-third of the 116 court policies do not mention ability to pay at all and one-third do not mention community service as a way to work off debt, or explicitly disallow it. Of the courts that allow community service, many make it difficult to access or have rigid requirements.

Also, over one-half of the courts require a down payment and nearly one-third require the maximum down payment allowed.

The center and others complain that the suspensions cause numerous problems for people with limited incomes, preventing them from reaching jobs to pay the court costs and prompting some to driving on suspended licenses, which can lead to criminal charges and convictions.

“Even as further changes can be made to payment plan policies across the state, Virginia’s law stripping driver’s licenses of people who default on court debt needs to be repealed,” urges the report.