Your Driver’s License – It Is Essential

The Pennsylvania Courts have long held, and repeatedly stated, that driving is not a right, it is a privilege. The distinction is important. Because you have no right to drive, your operating privileges can be suspended without the same protections that would be in place before you were deprived of an essential right.

But, think about how essential your operating privileges really are to your life and the life of your family. Do you drive for a living? Do you need to drive to get to your job? Do you need to drive to take your children to school or daycare or afterschool activities? Are you an essential caregiver for a child or parent; do you need to drive to provide for their care? Despite those essential needs, you have no right to drive and must take care to protect the privilege of operating a motor vehicle. A few words of advice:

Traffic citations are serious matters that endanger your operating privileges. Do not ignore a traffic citation. You must seek legal advice immediately. If you fail to respond to a citation within 10 days, the court will notify PennDOT of your failure and PennDOT will suspend your operating privileges – your essential operating privileges! – indefinitely until you respond to the court.

On the other hand, do not just pay the citation without first seeking legal advice. Payment of the citation is a guilty plea to the violation with which you were charged. Many charges carry the penalty of a license suspension or points against your license, which can accumulate and ultimately result in a suspension.

The citation will not include a warning about the suspension or points that will result if convicted. The court is not required to tell you about this result before you pay the citation and plead guilty to the charge. The court will simply accept your payment and advise PennDOT of that outcome; PennDOT will then impose its penalty of suspension or points.

If you move, you must immediately advise the PennDOT Bureau of Driver Licensing. PennDOT is required to send notices of suspensions and points only to the address they have for you in their records at the Bureau of Driver Licensing. And they are only required to send the notice; they are not required to prove that you received it. You could be suspended without even knowing it happened. If you then drive and are cited for driving under suspension, the penalty is a large fine and an additional one-year suspension of your essential operating privileges.

If you are sued concerning an automobile accident, you must seek legal advice immediately. Do not ignore the case just because you feel it was wrongly filed against you; the court will enter a default judgment against you if you do not respond by filing a formal answer. Based on that judgment, PennDOT will suspend your operating privileges indefinitely until you pay the judgment in full or make arrangements to do so with the plaintiff who sued. By that point, you likely will have no way to reverse that judgment and no way to regain your operating privileges other than to pay the judgment that you might have succeeded in defending if you had not simply ignored the lawsuit.

For more information, or for legal advice in your specific situation, contact the attorneys at Willig, Williams & Davidson.

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