RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (NCDMV) will be contacting more than 185,000 drivers whose licenses were revoked for their failure to pay fines, penalties and court costs as part of a settlement to prevent them from having their licenses suspended.
NCDMV said the contact period will be over the next 60 days. The DMV has agreed to send drivers notices of their rights, explaining a long-standing North Carolina law that allows drivers to keep their licenses if they can't afford to pay. NCDMV said it will lift those revocations if the sentencing court finds the drivers' failure to pay was not willful and instead due to their inability to afford the amount due.
For a six-month period following the announcement of the settlement, the NCDMV will mail a copy of a template to drivers when requested. It will also revise the official notice sent to drivers who face future license revocations for failure to pay court debt. The new form will permit drivers to prevent the suspension of their license by filing with the court that they can't afford the fine and fees.
A class-action lawsuit was filed in May of 2018 by several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center. According to WRAL-TV in Raleigh, the DMV estimates 57,000 people in North Carolina have revoked licenses right now because they've failed to pay a traffic ticket.
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