Ohio Legislature Passes Bill Ending Driver’s License Suspensions for Court Debts
Ohio may soon reinstate the driver’s licenses of hundreds of thousands of residents who lost the ability to drive because of unpaid court debts. The state General Assembly passed a bipartisan bill to end the practice last month.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to sign into law House Bill 29. The bill would, among other provisions, end the state’s practice of suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid court fines and minor drug offenses; retroactively reinstate licenses previously suspended for those reasons; allow poor residents to enter into payment plans; and give a person who is in default on child support payments the opportunity to present evidence that suspending their license would prevent them from making future payments.
Ohio is currently one of over 20 states, according to the Fines and Fees Justice Center, that suspend licenses for court debts, but, as in many other states in recent years, criminal justice advocates convinced the legislature that debt-based license suspensions are unfair and illogical. The practice deprives people of transportation, which makes it harder to hold down a job and pay off their debts, or leads them to drive to work on a suspended license and risk accruing more fines.
“House Bill 29 is a monumental bill that will benefit Ohio workers, employers, and communities,” said Lauren Krisai, executive director of the Justice Action Network, which advocated in favor of the legislation. “It will change hundreds of thousands of lives.”
An investigation by The Marshall Project and WEWS News 5 published in 2023 found the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles issued nearly 200,000 new license suspensions the previous year for failing to pay court fines, missing child support p
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