Civil liberty groups demand Solano County stop suspending licenses of drivers too poor to pay fines – IOTW Report

Civil liberty groups demand Solano County stop suspending licenses of drivers too poor to pay fines

CalWatchdog: Solano County Superior Court fell under fire Tuesday from civil liberty groups demanding that judges stop suspending licenses of drivers without at least first determining if a driver has the ability to pay.

By the end of 2015, more than 1.9 million Californians, many of who whom are unemployed, disabled or homeless, had suspended licenses for failure to appear or failure to pay on citations, according to data provided by the coalition of groups, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California.

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14 Comments on Civil liberty groups demand Solano County stop suspending licenses of drivers too poor to pay fines

  1. Cars are expensive to own and operate. How can a person who can’t cough up a few bucks for a fine afford to drive a car?

    I am so over these broke-asses and their sense of overentitlement. This past week I have been working with a litigant who needs an Order of Protection against her roommate. She can only get to court late in the day because she lacks carfare to get to court and has to wait for a ride. Problems: The file for an Order of Protection needs to be in the courtroom by 4:00 p.m. sharp for a same-day hearing. Anything that doesn’t make this deadline is automatically put on the calendar for 9:00 a.m. the following day. If you could see the courtroom’s calendar for a typical day, you would understand why the rigidity. My court is the second-busiest trial court in the United States, and if we didn’t manage the calendar this way, there’d be absolute chaos.

    This litigant gave both me and my supervisor absolute hell because she arrived too late to be heard on Tuesday, and strolled in yesterday at 3:30 p.m. for a 9:00 a.m. hearing. Her petition had been dismissed at 2:00 p.m., and she had to refile. More hell–we’re denying her access to justice, discriminating against her, what kind of court are we running, blablahblah…… I wanted to say, “Well, Missy, you’re cerainy expecting a lot for a person who’s done two bids for armed robbery.”

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