Posted May 13, 202410:46 am
By Katherine Hollingsworth
This year, as Ohio Senate Bill 37 makes its way through the Statehouse, testimony was provided by Ohioans regarding the significant impact of debt-related driver’s license suspensions. More than 60% of Ohio’s driver’s license suspensions do not stem from bad driving. Instead, they arise because the driver owes a debt. These types of suspensions prevent people from getting to work where they could make the money needed to repay the debt.
Legal Aid has helped many clients file bankruptcy to resolve driver’s license suspensions when they cannot afford judgments, fees, and other debts. Individuals resort to bankruptcy because they feel trapped by needing to work to pay the money owed, but not being able to get to work without a license.
For instance, we recently helped Walter Garrity (named changed to protect client privacy), a 35-year-old resident of Northeast Ohio who went to school to get a commercial driver’s license to support himself and his family.
In 2022, Garrity’s car was hit by another driver who was using a cellphone. After the accident, he learned that his insurance had lapsed due to a late payment. He reinstated the insurance, but unbeknownst to him, the other driver sued him, got a default judgment for $33,000, and had the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) place a judgment suspension on his license. He had to quit his truck driving job because of the suspension. He did not want to drive unlawfully and risk getting in more trouble.
Mr. Garrity had no way to pay the judgment without working, so he came to Legal Aid for help.
In 2022, Legal Aid published a report that highlighted how Ohioans face more than three million debt-related suspensions totaling over $900 million yearly in outstanding debt. Residents in areas with high poverty rates and high percentages of people of color are disproportionately affected by suspensions and the associated fees and costs, revealing that those struggling to pay for debt-related suspensions pay the most.
Debt-related driver’s license suspensions in Ohio are a racial justice issue holding back our economy from thriving.
License forfeitures, warrant blocks and registration blocks are collectively the largest type of debt-related suspension. In 2020, over 785,000 Ohioans faced almost 1.7 million of these suspensions. Courts throughout Ohio use these suspensions to compel defendants to appear in court and to pay money owed to the court. A person who cannot get to work because of a license suspension — or who cannot get a job because so many employers now require a valid driver’s license — will have a much harder time paying the money they owe than someone who can continue to work.
Noncompliance suspensions are the second largest category of debt-related suspensions in Ohio and are uniquely problematic.
In 2020, over 675,000 Ohioans had over 1.3 million noncompliance suspensions.
Noncompliance suspensions are imposed when people are stopped by police and cannot prove that they have insurance, and it is one of the suspensions imposed on uninsured drivers involved in accidents. Under current law, drivers must pay higher insurance rates and maintain a certificate of insurance (an SR-22) with the BMV. Subsequent violations within five years trigger mandatory suspension periods, meaning people cannot get their licenses back, even if they have the money to pay the insurance costs and BMV fees.
But for many Ohioans, the costs are so prohibitive, they just give up and risk driving.
Driving is a privilege, not a right — and it is currently a privilege that is quickly revoked for many Ohioans with low incomes. Barriers to transportation threaten an individual’s ability to maintain employment, which perpetuates the cycle of poverty.
Source: Crain's Cleveland Business - Ohio helps perpetuate cycle of poverty with license suspensions