New Law Ends Driver’s License Suspensions For Unpaid Court Fines Or Fees

For years, thousands of Ohioans who were unable to pay back court-imposed fines or fees were penalized by having their driver’s license suspended. With the signing of House Bill 29 (HB 29) in January (effective April 9), people that were impacted by debt-related driver’s license suspensions may be able to get their licenses back with no reinstatement fees.

“The passing of HB 29 is important because this type of driver’s license suspension – called a license forfeiture – is not because of dangerous driving but debt or failure to pay a court fine or fee,” said Michael Russell, a Senior Attorney in the Community Engagement Practice Group at The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. “Taking away a person's license has a ripple effect – they may not be able to legally drive to work, medical appointments, take their children to and from school or childcare. The new law provides some relief for those who can’t legally drive simply because they owed money to a court.”

Legal Aid became interested in debt-related driver’s license suspensions when the organization noticed that its client community was experiencing an increase in these types of suspensions. Legal Aid and Brian Mikelbank, an Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Cleveland State University and Legal Aid Visting Scholar, started to collect data from the BMV. The data revealed that debt-related suspensions disproportionately impacted communities that had high rates of poverty and higher percentages of people of color. Legal Aid's resulting report, “Road to Nowhere: Debt Related Driver’s License Suspensions in Ohio,” played a key role in the statewide advocacy to eliminate debt-related driver's license suspensions.

“This work fits into Legal Aid's broader effort to remove legal barriers to peoples’ success and a debt-related license suspension is one such barrier,” Michael emphasized.

Drivers who are affected by court-imposed license forfeiture suspensions for failure to pay a court fine or fee should have those suspensions lifted automatically. The new law does not affect other types of suspensions, like those related to DUI’s or other dangerous driving.

“The BMV and the courts are still working out exactly how to do this,” Michael said. “The law gives them 30 days from April 9, 2025, but it may take more time than that. The BMV should send out notices to drivers who've had suspensions lifted. Therefore, it’s extremely important that drivers go to the BMV website to make sure that their address is current.”

Michael emphasized the importance of getting confirmation from the BMV that a suspension had been lifted before getting behind the wheel again or stopping a payment plan that was initially set-up to get a license reinstated.

“We don't want people to stop paying and risk an additional suspension because they were assuming that the suspension was lifted,” Michael said.

To learn about other changes to the law go to: lasclev.org and enter “driver’s license suspensions” in the search bar.

Have questions about your driver's license suspension? Come to a Legal Aid Brief Advice Clinic. For a full list of dates and times go to: lasclev.org/events.