Charlene is a disabled, single mother of two minor children. Her license was suspended in 2018 for failure to pay fines and fees on a misdemeanor petit theft case. She thought she had settled all of her court debt but she later found out that she still had an outstanding balance.
Without her license, Charlene is forced to walk her 11-year-old daughter almost two miles each way to get her to her school bus stop. She and her daughters have also missed medical appointments that they needed to attend, because they did not have a way to get there. With the limited amount of money she receives from disability, she cannot afford daily bus fare.
During the Coronavirus pandemic, she also hasn’t been able to go to the public school sites where they were distributing free meals to get food for her daughter. Because of this, she wrote the Volusia County Clerk of Court requesting a payment plan. Unfortunately, she found out they sent her case to collections and they are requiring a down payment which Charlene cannot afford to pay.