More than 65,000 driver licenses have been restored by the city’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) after D.C. had stopped suspending licenses for failing to appear in court or pay traffic fines, according to the D.C. DMV report released last month.
About 2,200 licenses of D.C. residents still remain invalid due to the civil judgments practice which was outlawed in January, as per the report. Those residents can apply for the reinstatement of their licenses from this month.
In November 2018, licenses of 65,922 people were reinstated; 15,521 of them were D.C. residents, while 54,401 were not. According to the report, some drivers had their licenses suspended for decades, going back to as early as 1969.
The report says DMV notified the reinstatement of licenses by sending out letters. However, only 14,324 letters were dispatched as many of the suspensions dated back to decades.
“On November 30, 2018, DMV’s licensing system was programmed to reinstate all currently suspended driver licenses and driving privileges due to previous three criteria. After the reinstatements, letters were sent out to the impacted individuals,” the report states.
The licenses were restored after the passage of a new law by the District which ended suspensions of licenses for drivers who were unable to pay violation fines or didn’t appear in the court hearing. The new law is expected to take effect in mid or late March.
DMV will program its licensing system as the new law takes effect, and also update its website, informing people that judgments or unpaid fines will not lead to license suspensions.