Getting my suspended license back. Could use some help.

Alright basically let me give you all the run down...

At a young age I was pulled over for a minor traffic violation with [what I thought] was a valid license in my wallet. However, I was told my license was suspended and I was given another suspension for driving with the suspended license (even though I had no idea it was suspended in the first place).

I found out it all had to do with the state sending a $34 ticket to the wrong address; go figure.

Anyway, I had school and had already paid for it using loans, I wasn't about to stop driving. Well I ended up getting another year added on getting caught with a suspended license.

(there's a bit of a gap between these events FYI)

I then get pulled over once again without a license, am given a DUI - general impairment, for having my prescription medications on me, and I take the 1 year hit again.

So right now my license has been gone since 2007, but the dates don't add up and yes I've been through all of this with my lawyer but to even look at my driving record he wants $500 (and this is a friend of a family member). Basically $5,000+ to somehow have them work their magic.

But take a look at this and tell me if it makes any sense...

INDEFINITE SUSPENSION
-You did not respond to a traffic citation (-----------) in the following
court:
38124 DISTRICT COURT
2047 BRIDGE RD

SCHWENKSVILLE PA 194732030 610-584-4732
Date of Violation: 11/28/07 Amount Owed: $232.50
Contact the court to satisfy the citation. (If the court information
does not appear, write or call PENNDOT at the address or phone number
listed at the end of this letter).


TERM SUSPENSION/REVOCATION
-You have a 1 YEAR(S) suspension/revocation that began (or
will begin) on 05/11/10. Credit for serving this suspension/revoca-
tion began (or will begin) on 05/11/10 and will end on 05/11/11.
The suspension/revocation resulted from a violation on 05/04/08
of Section 1543A, DRIVING WHILE SUSP/REVOKE

TERM SUSPENSION/REVOCATION
-You have a 1 YEAR(S) suspension/revocation that began (or
will begin) on 05/11/11. Credit for serving this suspension/revoca-
tion began (or will begin) on 05/11/11 and will end on 05/11/12.
The suspension/revocation resulted from a violation on 05/23/08
of Section 3802A1, DUI GENERAL IMPAIRMENT

Now do the math. How did I end up with a license suspension until 5/11/2012?

Honestly I think it's a bunch of crap, I never once deserved my suspension(s) -- you may say different since I drove after having my license suspended but I didn't deserve the original one... and yes I had insurance the whole time I was driving and I always will.

If anyone can help me out or send me/post some information which may help I'd greatly appreciate it.

I live in Pennsylvania which obviously has different laws than other states but the basics are the same.

I need to get my license back so I can drive again -- I wont drive again illegally but with this economy I need to drive to work, to finish school, etc... I can't keep relying on rides and the public transportation since the latter [especially] is very unreliable (damn septa!).

Thanks in advance.

Oh my you have been a daft old boy havn't you, surely you knew about the first violation and even if you did not you should have stopped driving after getting your licence suspended the first time and then contacted the courts about the 34 dollar fine and them sending it to wrong address, I am not having a go but you should have used your common sense and not driven till you sorted original fine out. In this case and I am not familiar with US law but I would thinj there is not a lot you can do except put it down to experience.

It looks like they didn't enforce the 1 year suspention while they waited for you to pay the fine. Once you hit a deadline it took effect. You got another charge and instead of revoking the DL durring the same time it is already revoked - they added the next year to begin after the first year is enforced.

Looks legit. You are out of luck until 2012 buddy. Make sure you check on your status and know what is going on for yourself while things are happening. Don't ignore a fine and pretend it will go away. They may still want you to pay the initial fine. Some States post all criminal charges and citations online where you can look yourself up.

I'm not sure what a lawyer can do for you at this point, but you either pay him and hope for the best or stay off the road. It is possible you can slide under the radar if you go out of state and they give you an out of state driver's licesnse that you use from now on. I doubt it usually works, but I have heard of it working.

You may say that the first suspension wasn't your fault, but you're supposed to register a new address with the DMV whenever you move, aren't you? Yes, it's bureaucratic, but there it is.... The time to deal with this was in '08, when you found out your license was suspended. At that point, you could file a summary judgment appeal for the original suspension. www.pacode.com...

I don't know why the second suspensions began in '10, instead of '08. Probably because you never paid the original ticket, so the suspension ran the entire length of that license's issue period -- if you'd paid it off immediately, and got that suspension lifted, then the second and third ones may have been 'bumped up' and started running earlier.

At this point, it sounds like the only thing you can do is to cough up $500-$1000 to a lawyer and try and get the sentence reduced, or do your own research and file an appeal with the court. The best advice may be what the previous poster said -- chalk it up as a lesson-learned.

My sympathies. SEPTA sucks.

reply to post by highlyoriginal


OH gotta love the DMV and their lack of informing you.

I had something similar happen. I found out my license was suspended due to a parking ticket I never knew I had. Yeah I NEVER knew I even had a parking ticket. I was livid because the non payment suspended my license. I had no idea my license was suspended until I went to renew my tags. They said they sent me a letter which I knew was a total lie because they had my current address and information. The parking ticket was like 80 bucks and when I saw the address for where it was for I knew exactly where I was. I was at my bf at the times house and my car was parked behind his and they said too much of my back end was on the sidewalk! I dont know if it's like that all over Florida or just specific areas. I had parked my car in the same spot for months and not once got a ticket and neither did anyone of my bf's friends who had company over and parked the same way. Anyway...I never got caught driving on my suspended license which is a good thing cause I would have really flipped out! I paid a ton of fines and filed a complaint with the DMV which was never dealt with on their end, they just ignored me.

The Florida DMV has a bad reputation for their lack of informing people of their suspensions or anything else. I know so many people who have had issues with the DMV here. If you call them it takes sometimes hours to get a person or it's busy!! Yes it is busy!

I know your situation sucks and you didn't know but you shouldn't have driven the second time. I know it sucks but my car sat for months another time I had a license suspension again that I didn't know about and when I found out I let it sit because the fees were so high and it really sucked not having my car...Like I said the FL DMV is the worst. I am always checking my license online now lol Since I know so many horror stories like this here the only thing I can think of is to ask the jugde for a hardship license. Explain your situation to him and see if he grants you one. That way you can at least drive to work and get to the store. A friend of mine had to get one to go to her job and they gave her one. She was allowed to drive at certain times and she had restrictions but she could at least get things done and go to work. I say I would try that.

reply to post by highlyoriginal


Based on your details, you seem to have done too many things wrong and not enough right. Your woes remind me of a close family member of mine. The constant tenor of his plea is "It is always somebody elses fault. Not me!" (True example, "The cop shouldn't have been coming down the road when I roared out of the bar's parking lot!"

Grow up, wise up, and accept the responsibility for your actions. Otherwise, it can become a very deep and expensive pit you are digging for yourself. If you think it is expensive for you to correct this situation now, just wait, with your driving style that you have made obvious, you WILL have a bigger legal bill and maybe some lockedup time in the future.

Originally posted by Ian McLean
You may say that the first suspension wasn't your fault, but you're supposed to register a new address with the DMV whenever you move, aren't you? Yes, it's bureaucratic, but there it is.... The time to deal with this was in '08, when you found out your license was suspended. At that point, you could file a summary judgment appeal for the original suspension.

...

My sympathies. SEPTA sucks.

Yeah thing is I did the change of address form (3x) -- they said they never got it/didn't get changed in time so it was my fault.

I was given the opportunity to appeal the original suspension when I was younger but they had a room of us sign all at once (I had just turned 18 and was unfortunately unaware that I should not sign anything when told to by the court...).

They told us all to sign our names to get the process going quicker etc etc... little did I know I was signing my rights away to have an appeal.

Now yes, you can appeal the final decision but at that point it was too late.

And for those of you who are saying things about my past driving record, FYII have very much so grown into an adult since the time these things occurred.

I have a history with the police in my area, not for violent crimes & totting illegal guns in my hip. I unfortunately was given crap at a young age for things like skateboarding with friends on public property and things just grew from there.

Anyway there are some good cops out there, and I just took care of that '07 fine today. They actually found another one they said I didn't pay... go figure! Yay PA, and while I'm at it hurrah for the US of A for it's awesome police-state society!

Oh and once again, SEPTA does suck. Tired of having to setup rides only to have to call and tell my friends I'm 42 minutes late... oops!

Originally posted by Aliensun
reply to post by highlyoriginal

 

Based on your details, you seem to have done too many things wrong and not enough right. Your woes remind me of a close family member of mine. The constant tenor of his plea is "It is always somebody elses fault. Not me!" (True example, "The cop shouldn't have been coming down the road when I roared out of the bar's parking lot!"

Grow up, wise up, and accept the responsibility for your actions. Otherwise, it can become a very deep and expensive pit you are digging for yourself. If you think it is expensive for you to correct this situation now, just wait, with your driving style that you have made obvious, you WILL have a bigger legal bill and maybe some lockedup time in the future.

You do realize that my situation is actual right? I have no reason to lie right now.

My DUI (general impairment) was for prescription medications -- which I had not even take the full dose of -- but they were benzodiazepines and therefore I was given a field sobriety test -- which I passed.

Then I was asked to submit to a blood test (saying no = 1yr suspension on license, I was clean, so why the hell not, right?). I submitted and was told the levels for my medications were too high therefore I was impaired.

Too bad to prove my innocence it would have cost $5,000 for a specialist (a chemist most likely) to explain the pharmacological side to the story. See my plasma levels were at their peak for the small dose of my anxiety medications I had taken that morning when I got my blood test therefore it looked as if I had taken more (and this is a stretch I'm giving them because I was honestly not impaired). Oh, did I mention I've been on these medications since I was 14? Guess they never heard of tolerance.

So please, before judging me, get to know me or shove it kindly

reply to post by highlyoriginal


Good point...in my wife's accident, the cop tried to say the same thing (impaired due to medication). Funny thing is, I gave her a pain pill before he got on the scene (she was injured and hurt), and I admitted this to him, so of course, any kind of field test is then a moot point, hehe....

So, she couldn't be tested or charged with that. They got her for running a stop sign, but as you can't see the sign until about 10' from it (due to bushes obscuring it), we'll get the ticket thrown out. The video is incredible, you really can't see the sign until you are RIGHT there. Once a judge sees it, he'll throw out the ticket, we're hoping. Got a court date for April.

The idea of blood levels as a test is insane. The real deal here is IMPAIRMENT. The fact that you passed that test should really be the more important factor as a REAL test of your reflexes, etc. But legally, you're pretty screwed.

You're soo deep in the meat grinder of the DMV Bureaucracy it isn't funny.

I feel for you. I had a similar situation occur after I had paid a speeding ticket but it was applied to another license/account with my same name ?!

So I too was unknowingly driving on a suspended license. And would have been duly arrested had I been pulled over.

I have found that it's important and the best course of action is to learn the law yourself whenever you are threatened by it or even beforehand.

I have an uncle who is an Attorney who told me this.

There is so much to learn and so much that we are NOT told as to how the law functions.
Every time we sign our names, We give up our rights in order to become subservient to our system of Tort aka The Uniform Commercial Code.

Also, that the requirement for a Drivers License doesn't apply to you IF you aren't driving for commercial purposes.

Listen and Learn from Charlie Sprinkle.

www.youtube.com...

Lawyers are paid shills to the bureaucrats who don't want to rock the boat so to speak and won't go out of their way to solve your issues due to their sworn allegiance to the BAR. (British Accreditation Registry)

As an Attorney, Their allegiance to the BAR only allows them to transfer ownership to the land owner.

Attorney is derived from the word Attorn meaning:
One who transfers or assigns property, rights, title and allegiance to the owner of the land.

Ie, they take your money and hand it over to the bureaucrats !

They are mere paid subservient representatives and employees of the BAR (British Accreditation Registry ) and don't want to butt heads with the Prosecuting attorney who could make their lives miserable in future cases. As in loss of employment due to threat of disbarment.

If you have friends or family in another state, you might consider setting up residence there. And getting a License there if possible. Often times it requires simply handing over the old license for the new.

But do perform due diligence first, by first verifying the laws in various states for this first.

Additionally as far as reading up on the law and solving this issue yourself. Begin by protecting your vehicle from seizure by Removing/cancelling the state Certificate of title to your vehicle. They then cannot legally repossess it.....as it can be with all state registered vehicles that are in violation of their statutes.

Create your own title of ownership with only your name and record it at the County Recorder, newspaper etc. and carry a certified copy with your vehicle.

As they say, There is more than one way to skin a cat ...

Good Luck.

Live Free or Die


Disclaimer:

The preceding information contained within is and shall not be construed as legal advice but is entirely for entertainment and non legal purposes only.