Over the past month, more than 170,000 Ohioans have had license suspensions and vehicle registration blocks removed, putting them on the path to drive legally.
In Cuyahoga County, nearly 36,000 license suspensions and registration blocks were lifted.
To comply with a law passed last year that eliminated suspensions for people with unpaid court fines and fees, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles said it has also wiped away more than $8 million in fees drivers would have had to pay to reinstate their licenses. Going forward, courts can no longer issue immediate license suspensions when drivers don’t pay a court fine or fee.
President & CEO of Towards Employment Jill Rizika said she was amazed at the number suspensions lifted with “the stroke of a pen.” The nonprofit is part of Drive to Justice, a coalition that advocates to end debt-related driver’s license suspensions.
Now, Rizika said, there’s a path forward for many people to have their licenses restored, but “we need to make sure the potential is realized.” The group has plans for future events to help people navigate the reinstatement process, untangle suspensions not covered by the law and gather stories from people who have benefitted by the law.
The total number of suspension and registration blocks lifted, according to state officials, was 429,501. About 13,000 of those were related to a now-defunct law that suspended licenses of drivers who didn’t respond to random requests to prove they had insurance. Officials haven’t provided a county-by-county breakdown yet but local courts in Cuyahoga County have said thousands of license suspensions were lifted.
At this point, a little over 7,000 people have taken steps to get a valid license. In some cases that is as simple as a trip to a local license bureau. In other cases, if a person’s license expired while it was suspended, they have to take the state driver’s test again.
As of last week, 24,356 drivers had all suspensions on their record removed and should be eligible to get a valid license. More than 139,000 drivers still have one or more suspensions that would require further action before they can drive legally.
The state has sent more than 200,000 letters to update people on their driving status. Those letters go to the address the Bureau of Motor Vehicles has on file. Drivers can check to see if their suspensions were removed online or by calling the court that issued the suspension
Under the new law, only suspensions related to unpaid fines and fees were removed. Local courts can also suspend licenses or block a person from registering a vehicle if they fail to show up for court. Officials said about 94,000 of those suspensions and blocks remain that were not covered under the law.
[Update: This story was updated after it was published with numbers of suspensions and registration blocks lifted in Cuyahoga County.]
