NEW LAW HELPS TO STOP THE POOR FROM BEING CONVICTED OF DRIVING ON A SUSPENDED LICENSE

As I have previously written, there are three types of Driving While License Suspended (DWLS) crimes in Washington State: DWLS in the 1st degree, DWLS in the 2nd degree, and DWLS in the 3rd degree. 1st degree DWLS is the crime you will be charged with if you are driving while your license is revoked under the Habitual Traffic Offender Act. 2nd degree DWLS is what you'll be charged with if you drive while your license is suspended and you are ineligible for reinstatement due to a mandatory license suspension for a specified period of time (such a 1 year suspension for refusing to take a breath test). 3rd degree DWLS is where your license is suspended, and you are eligible for reinstatement.

It's this last type of DWLS that I'd like to focus on in this posting because legislation was passed in May that will hopefully reduce the number of people who are convicted of this crime. People who are charged with 3rd degree DWLS usually have some sort of financial problem. They are all eligible for reinstatement as long as they pay money that they owe. This is often for unpaid traffic tickets, but it can also be for failure to pay child support or failure to pay a civil judgment when the defendant was found to be at fault in a traffic accident.

So people struggling financially and are simply unable to pay the money they owe have the license suspended and to earn a living or to get from place to place in order to get the money they to pay off their debts, they end up driving. Now they get charged with 3rd degree DWLS, which is a misdemeanor criminal charge.

I have had a client who could not get his license reinstated because, although he was slowly coming up with the money to pay off his traffic tickets, he was given the runaround when it came to trying to figure out exactly who to pay- The courts told him his fines went to collection and the collections agency told him to call the courts because they did not have an account for him.

In May of this year, Senate Bill 5732 became law. The new law will be added to chapter 46.20 of the RCW and authorizes cities and counties to establish licensing diversion programs for the purpose of helping suspended drivers get their licenses back. The new law also requires the courts in jurisdictions that do not have licensing diversion programs to issue the defendant a copy of his or her driving abstract and give the defendant all of the information regarding what money is owed and to whom. This law only applies to people whose licenses have been suspended due to failure to pay traffic tickets, failure to respond to a notice of traffic infraction, failure to appear at a requested hearing, or for violated a written promise to appear in court.

Under SB 5732 a driver is not be eligible for a diversion program if he or she has been convicted of DWLS more than 4 times in the last 10 years. The law also limits diversion eligibility for drivers who hold a commercial drivers license. For the many struggling people who are down on their luck, the new law may be of great benefit to get out of a hole. It will also free up the courts which have to deal with a large number of 3rd degree DWLS cases.