Mississippi Department of Public Safety declines to enforce statute that permits driver’s license suspension for failure to pay fines and fees

Following a series of discussions between the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (DPS), the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the MacArthur Justice Center, DPS made a number of discretionary changes regarding driver’s license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees.

You can read a letter from the Department of Public Safety describing these policy changes here.

Key Changes

• DPS stopped suspending driver’s licenses for nonpayment of fines and fees in January 2017. (They are declining to enforce Mississippi Code Section 63-1-53(1) and (2)h.)
• DPS will restore the driver’s licenses for all those who had licenses suspended solely due to nonpayment of fines and fees and provide written notice of restoration to all those affected.
• DPS will waive the $100 driver’s license reinstatement fee for those drivers.