A proposed law that could help more Ohioans restore their suspended driving privileges passed in the Ohio Senate unanimously last week. 

Advocates say the bill, which has garnered bipartisan support, would bring relief to drivers saddled with what are often called debt-related suspensions. That includes not having proof of insurance, failing to pay court fines, or missing child support payments.

The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles issued nearly 200,000 new debt-related suspensions in 2022, according to an investigation by The Marshall Project – Cleveland and WEWS News 5.  

Cleveland’s 44104 ZIP code – with one of the lowest household incomes in the state — covers the city’s Kinsman neighborhood and has one of the highest rates of debt-related suspensions among drivers in Ohio, according to a study conducted by the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. The study also estimated about 60% of license suspensions in Ohio were related to an inability to pay money owed to a court, the state bureau of motor vehicles or third party.

The suspensions often mean that people have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars in “reinstatement fees” to drive legally again. 

The Ohio House is expected to take up the current version of the bill.  A timeline for passage is short, but advocates are hopeful, Zack Eckles of the Ohio Poverty Law Center said. 

“Hopefully they will move it quickly,” he said. “But I would not dare to predict anything.”

Since 2017, two dozen other states have changed laws to make it easier to restore driver’s licenses stemming from debt-related suspensions. 

The version of the bill passed by the Ohio Senate would:

  • Eliminate driver’s license suspensions for a failure to pay a court fine or fee or to appear in court. Ohio would retroactively and automatically eliminate these penalties if the bill passes. 
  • The bill was tweaked instead to require the court to issue a citation to a person who doesn’t show up for court, which would give them 30 days to show up or respond before their license could be suspended.
  • The bill would not eliminate costly reinstatement fees for drivers who don’t have proof of insurance, but it would make it harder to rack up repeat suspensions that can escalate the total amount of reinstatement fees. Instead of looking back five years, the penalties would increase only if there were multiple suspensions within a year for “noncompliance” with rules that require drivers to be insured. 
  • Any remaining suspensions or financial penalties linked to a now-defunct program that sent letters to verify that drivers were insured would be eliminated.
  • Drivers would not face a license suspension for a charge of drug abuse unless they also are charged with operating a vehicle while impaired (OVI) or if a car was used in another drug-related crime. People who have old drug abuse-related suspensions could ask for them to be removed. 
  • Students who are habitually truant (absent from school)  could still get licenses and not have their licenses suspended. 
  • People who owe child support would have the opportunity to argue that they would not be able to catch up on ordered payments without the ability to drive legally. People with suspensions could apply for limited privileges, no matter their situation. 

For drivers who currently trying to deal with a license suspension, here’s a guide with information to help.

The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. Through a partnership with Signal Cleveland, The Marshall Project is weaving more resident voices into its reporting and building an understanding about how the justice system works — and doesn’t work — in Cleveland.