

A few counties, including Escambia, Lake, Manatee, Santa Rosa, and Sarasota, continue to issue these suspensions.

Most counties in Florida have agreed to stop issuing license suspensions for failure to pay court fees and fines on ordinance violations cases.

Will help drivers learn if they had a suspension lifted as a result of the above. Suspensions and lifted over 13,500 of these suspensions, but the drivers were not notified. The DHSMV identified over 16,000 potentially improper driver’s license Not be lawful to suspend a driver’s license for failure to pay fines and fees arising from a municipal or county The court also held that his license should not have been suspended, because the Clerk of Courtĭid not have the authority to do so for failure to pay fees associated with a municipal ordinance violation.Īfter this case, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (“FLDHSMV”) recognized it may After he challenged this practice, the court held that several criminalĬourt fees and costs were not authorized in ordinance violation cases and ordered they be removed from the When he failed to pay the fines and fees, the clerk

The court assessed court feesĪnd fines, which Mr. In 2019, Anthony Cummings was found guilty of violating a local ordinance that prohibited sleeping outside. Our organizations, Southern Legal Counsel and the ACLU of Florida, are working to fix that. Suspension of a driver’s license for failure to pay court costs and fines on criminal cases however, 30Ĭounties in Florida have been issuing license suspensions for unpaid court fees in noncriminal, ordinance Millions of suspension notices are sent out every year in Florida. Related to violations, that had nothing to do with highway safety or even driving.įlorida, like many other states, now uses license suspensions as a coercive means of collecting fines andįees. Suspensions were issued for nonpayment of fees, fines, and court costs More recently, suspension began to be used, not as a safety Tickets, and other driving-related offenses. Safety, and related to offenses such as driving under the influence, reckless driving, repeated speeding Driver’s license suspensions were originally used to promote the goal of highway
