Articles Posted in Driving with a Suspended License

Michigan is the birthplace of the automotive industry. Its cities, townships, and rural areas have been designed with cars in mind. While public transportation does exist in some areas, the system is often limited and disconnected. As a result, getting around without a driver’s license is challenging and time-consuming. It involves patience, planning, and creates a reliance on friends, family, and coworkers. The overall experience can be quite a burden. Yet, with proper legal representation, you can ensure that the inconvenience is only a temporary one.

Restoration Is Not Automatic

Unlike a suspended license, a revoked license is not automatically reinstated. To have a revoked license restored in Michigan, you must initiate an appeal process with the state. The bar is high; you must prove by clear and convincing evidence that:

As strange as it sounds, a Portland man recently found out his driver’s license had been suspended just weeks earlier when he was pulled over by police. Kevin Berry, who though he was being pulled over for speeding, was informed by the police officer that his license had been suspended because of an unpaid traffic ticket dating back to 1981.

Berry was pulled over in Milwaukie when he learned that his driver’s license had been suspended on July 17. Not sure of whether police new what they were talking about, he checked with the DMV who confirmed the license suspension. How did this happen? A misspelling of Berry’s name at the DMV was the problem, according to a spokesperson who said that Berry’s name had mistakenly been spelled as “Berdy” when the record for the ticket was created.

A warning letter was sent to Berry about the driver’s license suspension in July, however Berry had just moved and did not receive the warning. Because the statute of limitations is no longer valid after 33 years, the DMV said that all Berry has to do is pay $75 to get his license reinstated, and that he does not have to pay the ticket – but Berry disagrees. He says “It’s the principle,” and believes he should not be responsible for paying the fee since the typo was the error of the DMV.

News reports at KATU and Newser do not indicate if the issue has been resolved.

Michigan driver’s license reinstatement attorneys no doubt hear some very strange stories, but this one tops them all. Berry never receives the first warning letter that his license will be suspended for non-payment of the ticket because of the misspelling of his name. Then, last month when another letter is sent out to inform him of the suspension, he has just moved and the letter does not get forwarded to his new address. Hopefully things will be resolved fairly.

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If you are reading this right now, you may wonder if that red light ticket you failed to pay could have resulted in your driver’s license being suspended. The fact is, many people in Michigan drive to and from work, school, or on other errands every day, thinking their driver’s license is valid – when in fact it is not. Here is a quick recap of an incident that recently happened in Florida.

Investigative reporter Daralene Jones decided she would do a little investigating regarding motorists who have had their licenses suspended and don’t discover it until it’s too late. One individual was notified that his driver’s license had been suspended because he did not pay a red-light ticket in a timely manner. The problem was, Jean Pierre did not know he had been ticketed, because the notices are sent out by the contractor hired by the camera vendor. Pierre never received the notice. Pierre contacted attorney Corey Cohen immediately.

Cohen told news reporters at Action News that he had a long list of clients in a situation similar to Pierre’s. Motorists are being ticketed for missing a red-light camera by .03 seconds, but the notices are not reaching many of the drivers. Authorities believe part of the problem is that the contractor hired to send out the citations uses addresses corresponding to vehicle registrations, instead of addresses corresponding to driver’s license.

Essentially, many Floridians (approximately 50,000) are having their driver’s licenses suspended for unpaid tickets they do not even know were issued because they are not receiving notification.

In Pierre’s case, a judge and lawyers with Cohen’s firm were working to uncover what happened, and if there is proof that Pierre did actually receive the citation. Until then, Pierre’s driver’s license has been temporarily reinstated.

Michigan driver’s license reinstatement attorneys know that there are frequently situations in which an individual’s license is suspended without his or her knowledge. You may have been pulled over for a simple traffic infraction, and informed by the police officer that your license is suspended. This could be due to failing to pay a court fine, or not being properly notified of the suspension.

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On Friday May 2, actor Stephen Baldwin, perhaps best known as Alec Baldwin’s younger brother, was arrested for driving with a suspended license.

According to the NY Daily News, Baldwin’s 2013 Ford Explorer was spotted by a police officer who noticed that the temporary registration sticker on the windshield of the Explorer had expired, and was issued in Texas.  Baldwin was pulled over just before 7 a.m. in the area of Broadway near W. 156th St.  Upon further inspection, police found that the 47-year-old actor’s driver’s license was suspended.  He was released with a desk appearance ticket after being taken to the station house at the 33rd Precinct.

Just two years ago, Baldwin was stopped after making an illegal U-turn in Harlem; he was driving without a license at that time, a charge to which he pleaded guilty and paid $155 in fines. Continue reading