Suspending Driver’s Licenses for Unpaid Fines and Fees is Counterproductive and Needs to End.
The fines and fees issue hurting the most Floridians and Florida businesses is the ineffective and harmful practice of suspending a person’s driver’s license for unpaid fines and fees. In 2017, over 1.1 million suspension notices, making up nearly 72% of all suspension notices that year, were for unpaid fines and fees – not for dangerous driving or public safety concerns. In total, nearly 2 million Floridians currently have a suspended driver’s license.
View our interactive Story Map that shows how driver’s license suspensions impact people across Florida, broken out by county – click here to see how license suspension hurts your community.
Driver’s license suspension should be reserved to keep dangerous drivers off the road – not punish people who are already struggling to make ends meet. Fewer than 4% of license suspensions are related to serious public safety issues like drunk driving.
Driver’s license suspension starts a downward spiral of job loss and economic instability. This forces people to make an impossible choice: Stop driving – and lose access to work, childcare, healthcare, food, and other basic necessities – or keep driving, which means risking criminal charges and even more unaffordable fines and fees.
Driving Success is FFJC’s effort to end Florida’s counterproductive driver’s license suspension practices. Our goal is to:
- End driver’s license suspensions for nonpayment of criminal court debt and traffic tickets; and
- Create uniform payment plan criteria that tailors payment amounts to a person’s financial abilities.
The Fines and Fees Justice Center invites you to join us to fight the harmful and counterproductive practice of driver’s license suspension for unpaid fines and fees. Here are some ways you can help:
- Tell your legislators that driver’s license suspension for unpaid fines and fees is counterproductive and needs to end. Ask them to support SB 1328 and HB903 to end license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees.
- Read our report, Driving on Empty: Florida’s Counterproductive and Costly Driver’s License Suspension Practices and share it with your friends and family.
- Review and share our one-pager that shows the costly impacts of driver’s license suspension on individual Floridians as well as Florida businesses.
- Join us. Your business, non-profit, church, or other organization can join the campaign.
- Learn more about the campaign. Contact Ashley Thomas at athomas@finesandfeesjusticecenter.org or Sarah Couture at scouture@finesandfeesjusticecenter.org
- Share your story. If you have been impacted by driver’s license suspension and want to help change the law in Florida, tell us your story!
- You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Twitter
Do you ever wonder how Florida compares?
Wonder no more! Visit the Free to Drive campaign page to learn about how debt-based driver’s license suspension is impacting millions across the country.
FFJC Florida Campaign: In the Media
Florida Phoenix: Getting driving privileges back for millions of FL motorists.
Miami Herald: Bill would end Florida’s practice of suspending licenses for driving while broke.
Orlando Sentinel: Stop suspending Florida drivers licenses because of unpaid tickets and fees.
Orlando Sentinel: Nearly 2 million Florida drivers have license suspended for unpaid fines, study finds.
Tallahassee Democrat: ‘Driving while broke’: Lawmakers want to stop suspending driver licenses for unpaid fines.
St. Augustine Record: You got it wrong on fines & fees.
Orlando Sentinel: Suspended license? Drivers can save on fees to restore licenses through Operation Green Light.
Tampa Bay Times: Thousands of Pinellas drivers have suspended licenses. This program is trying to help.
Jacksonville Free Press: Jacksonville Residents are Crippled by Court Fines and Fees, and No One Cares.
ABC News: ‘It’s Not America’: 11 Million go without a license because of unpaid fines.
Sun-Sentinel: Racial disparities exist in South Florida’s suspended licenses.
Driving Success Campaign Supporters
ACLU of Florida
Advancement Project
Americans for Prosperity- Florida
Chainless Change
Community Network Solution
Florida Cares
Florida Justice Institute
Florida Policy Institute
Florida Retail Federation
Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC)
Florida Rural Legal Services, Inc.
Florida Truckers Association
Foundation for Government Accountability
FRESHforce – A Program of Feeding Tampa Bay
Gainesville 4 All
Greater Orlando NOW
Hillsborough County Commissioners (view resolution in support)
HOPE Public Interest Resource Center at Miami Law
Human Rights Defense Center
Lakewood Organic
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Law Enforcement Action Partnership
Law Offices of the Public Defender, 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida
Law Offices of the Public Defender, 13th Judicial Circuit of Florida
League of Women Voters of Alachua County, Social & Criminal Justice Committee
Lyft
National Lawyers Guild
Operation New Hope
Organize Florida
PERC
R Street Institute
Responsible Business Initiative
Southern Legal Counsel
Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund
Tallahassee Veterans Legal Collaborative
Tampa City Council (view resolution in support)
The Dream Foundation, Inc.
The Institute for Justice
The Social Justice Advocacy Program at Stetson University College of Law
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