Driving on a suspended license can become a very serious problem, especially if you do it more than once. Convictions for this offense never go off your driving record, and the penalties for each one are increasingly severe:
- First Offense: $500 fine
- Second Offense: $750 fine and 0-5 days in jail
- Third or Subsequent Offense: $1,000 fine and 10 days in jail!
Each offense also carries a potential additional license suspension of up to 180 days and a $250/year surcharge for three years. If you are driving on a license suspended due to a DWI conviction, it is even worse!
What Do I Do?
The good news is that most people can resolve these tickets relatively painlessly. Most of the cases I deal with are people that received the ticket because:
- They never paid the fee to have their license restored after a period of suspension
- Their license was suspended by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission for failure to pay fines or surcharges, appear in court on another unrelated ticket, or reinstate an insurance policy.
- They didn’t know it had been suspended
In those circumstances where a driver’s license is “restorable,” the traffic courts on the whole will agree to downgrade the ticket to Failure to Produce a Driver’s License upon demand or out-and-out dismiss it, if the license is restored.
If you have received a ticket for driving while suspended while driving through southern New Jersey, please call my office at 856-432-4113 or contact me through this site to schedule a consultation to discuss your options.
