Driver's license suspended - New Jersey Monthly

It's been about 30 years since I had my last moving violation, so how was it that I came home Friday night to learn that my driver's license had been suspended?

My wife received a notice in the mail earlier Friday that we had an overdue parking ticket. That was bad enough. An $18 fine had ballooned to $66. This was the first either of us had heard about the ticket, which she had apparently received several months ago while parked in a two-hour spot alongside Montclair High School, where she works.

Now, we all know that high school kids routinely do charming things like taking parking tickets off of cars. Cute prank. That's likely what happened to my wife. She never knew she received the ticket and we never got any mailed notice until the overdue notice arrived last week.

Upon receiving the notice, my wife went immediately to the police station and paid the clerk in full. After she handed over the check, the clerk happened to mention, "Oh by the way, your husband's license has been suspended."

Naturally, my wife tried to protest this development, but was informed that the only way I could get my license reinstated was to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and pay $100. Ouch. The $18 ticket was now up to $166.

In fact, my license had been suspended on February 18 -- two days before we even received the overdue notice. Was the town or the state ever going to alert me about this suspension? Who knows? But I had been driving for at least 48 hours without a license. And I thought my outlaw days were long behind me.

Saturday morning, I was out the door at 7:30 to beat the rush at the Wayne office of the DMV. Driving with my suspended license, I hunkered down in the seat in hopes none of the local gendarmes had seen my picture in the post office.

Arriving at DMV, I signed in, stood in a couple of lines and finally made it to the appropriate counter. Reluctant to write the check, I asked about an appeals process. The lovely lady at DMV informed me that since my town had suspended my license I had to appeal to the town. The state (which was about to take my $100) had nothing to do with it.

I long ago decided not to get angry with DMV clerks -- they've got their own problems. With shaky outlaw hands, I wrote the check and returned from license limbo.

Now I need to go back to the Montclair police and request a letter stating that my license had been suspended in error. If and when I receive that letter, I'll send it off to Trenton, relegating the matter to that bureaucratic black hole where such letters typically reside.

It would be nice to get the $100 back. I could use it to pay my taxes.

Tags: Montclair | Driver's License

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Comments

license suspension

My license was suspended back in 1980 or so because of an unpaid parking ticket which I also never received (or saw). I received a notice in October that my license had been suspended in August! At least the Montclair police are getting better at notification in the intervening years. I had no choice but to go to court and plead my case. I won and nothing ever appeared on my record nor did it cost me any money. You probably should have gone to court...good luck in getting that letter from Trenton!

Posted by: Ellen Lev, None | Mar 03, 2009 21:20:33 PM |

...I can top that.

About five years ago, when I still lived in D.C., I got a $20 parking ticket in front of my apartment building. It was completely unjustified, as my back tire was about two full feet within the clearly marked boundary. But having tussled unsuccessfully with the byzantine D.C. appeals system once before, I figured I’d just pay the ticket. I wrote a $20 check and sent it in, and that was that.

About six weeks later I get a notice that my ticket is now $40 since they never received payment. Call up, complain, stonewalled, you know the drill. So I decide to pay the $40 ticket by credit card this time, giving me immediate verification that they’d have received my payment.

Over and done with? Not quite. About a month later THEY FOUND THE ORIGINAL $20 CHECK AND CASHED IT!

Government is the best racket around, I’m convinced of that.

Posted by: Matt Gaffney, None | May 10, 2009 18:26:10 PM |

Oh, but it can get SOOOO much worse. Like everyone else here, I received a parking ticket in Jersey city which I promptly lost and forgot about. I too didn’t receive any warning from the DMV about the late payment of the ticket. I found out that my license was suspended when a cop ran my plates, discovered my suspension and pulled me over. 1) Received a summons for driving on the suspended. If found guilty, I would lose my license for 3 months. I payed the parking ticket, hired a lawyer and for $500 & ended up pleading guilty to a lesser charge. I know, not a bad resolution necessarily. Fast forward 2 months, AGAIN a cop runs my plates and pulls me over to tell me that I am driving on the suspended. No, no parking tickets. DUE TO A CLERICAL ERROR THE DMV NEVER LIFTED THE SUSPENSION. And failed to do so for 4 months, over that time period I was given 3 summonses from 3 different municipalities for driving on the suspended. I had to show up in court for each of these with a DMV abstract showing the mistake. Now, I can’t get car insurance because I have so many tickets for "driving on the suspended". At this point I’ve given up on driving and moved to NY....I CAN’T STAND THE NJ DMV

Posted by: Margaret Walker, None | Jul 12, 2009 12:02:27 PM |

My Stretch in License Limbo