The California Department of Motor Vehicles has restored over 550,000 drivers’ licenses.
That’s because the DMV began complying with a 2016 lawsuit from the Western Center on Law and Poverty.
Mike Herald, the center’s Director of Policy Advocacy, said he and his colleagues noticed a common problem with clients who had incurred minor traffic infractions they couldn’t afford.
"People would get their licenses suspended because they couldn't afford to pay, and then they'd lose their job because they couldn't get to work anymore," Herald told KCBS Radio. "And then they really couldn't afford to pay."
So the center brought the lawsuit and proposed legislation, both of which were successful.
The law resulted in the DMV not being able to take a way because you can’t pay your tickets, and the lawsuit ending in this mass lawsuit restoration, largely aiding people who failed to appear in court due to financial circumstances and lost their license as a result.
"People couldn't get child care on the day they were supposed to go to court, or they couldn't get off work or they didn't have transportation to get to court," Herald told KCBS Radio. "And so they'd suspend their license for not showing up to court."
The DMV told KCBS Radio in a statement that the department has let drivers know that the Failure to Appear suspensions have been removed from their records. The department said in a court filing this week that it lifted nearly 555,000 improperly imposed suspensions.
Moving forward, the department said it won’t suspend licenses for failure to appear on any charges below a misdemeanor.
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