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:

Recently, 39-year-old Anthony Broadfoot of South Lake Tahoe was arrested for his third DUI in three months. According to news reports, Broadfoot, an El Dorado County sheriff’s deputy was on paid administrative leave when the latest incident took place.

Broadfoot was involved in a crash in the Shingle Springs area where he allegedly struck a parked vehicle in a parking lot. California Highway Patrol officers responded to the scene, and upon investigating arrested Broadfoot on suspicion of DUI.

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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 Because the statute of limitations is no longer valid after 33 years, the DMV said that all Berry has to do is pay $75 to get his license reinstated, and that he does not have to pay the ticket – but Berry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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On Tuesday, August 6, an accident between a double-decked tour bus and another bus resulted in the injury of 14 people, according to an article at the New York Post.  William Dalambert, who is 58 years old, was the driver of the double-decked tour bus that allegedly slammed into another bus in Times Square.  While he has been driving commercially for more than two decades, his driver’s license has been suspended 11 times for various reasons including not having insurance, unpaid child support, and improper filing of paperwork.  Four of the suspensions were for unspecified violations.

Authorities claim that Dalambert was high on drugs when Tuesday’s accident took place.  While his driver’s license was last suspended in November of 2013, it was valid at the time of the crash.  Dalambert was charged early on Wednesday with driving while ability impaired.  He was given a sobriety test at the scene of the accident, and agreed to a urine and blood test later.  The results of those tests had not been revealed at the time of news reports. Continue reading

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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Scott Weideman, a 49-year-old Harrison Township resident, was arrested and put behind bars on Monday May 12 after being found driving on a suspended driver’s license for the 24th time.  According to Detroit News, Weideman was pulled over in Mount Clemens while driving a Ford E250 U-Haul van.  Weideman admitted to the Macomb County Sheriff’s deputy that his license was suspended.  Upon check with the SOS’s office, the deputy discovered that Weideman had been convicted for driving with a suspended license 23 times in the past.

Secretary of State spokesman Fred Woodhams said that the last time Weideman was able to get a drivers license was 2004; he also admitted that 23 convictions for driving with a suspended license is uncommon.  He went on to say that individuals face a misdemeanor charge when being found guilty of driving with a suspended license for the third time.

If Weideman’s driver’s license were to be revoked, he would not be able to pay the applicable fines and regain his privilege to drive, according to Woodhams.  He would have to request and win a hearing with the SOS DAAD.  Continue reading

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

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