Is getting your license back your new years resolution?

The new year is upon us, and it's time to get working on those resolutions! The holidays are over so there is no more procrastination.

I am going to give you a good starting point and hopefully send you on the right road to getting that license back and clearing up that pesky suspension.

First you need to figure out why your license is suspended. I suggest getting your hands on a "Restoration Requirements Letter" This will be provided by PennDOT. You can request one by calling the PennDOT call center at 1-800-932-4600 (From Pennsylvania only), contacating PennDOT online at http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/suspensionsCenter/restoreDrivingPrivilage.shtml or by contacting a local Auto Tag Store.



Now read this paper carefully. This is a general listing of what needs to be done. You can't trust this to be an accurate listing of what each court wants, but you can use this to contact the courts to get the rest of the information.

Generally there are two types of suspension.

Indefinite Suspension - this type of suspension is a result of some action needing to be taken. You may have old tickets (not parking tickets) that need to be paid or plead to. DO NOT TAKE ANY ACTION ON THESE UNLESS YOU ARE SURE OF THE CONSEQUENCES. If you pay some old tickets it can (and will) result in more term suspension time being added to your record. This is bad and in most cases can be avoided.

Contact each of the courts on the "Restoration Requirements Letter" and ask them what is the status of each ticket. Ask for amounts, violations (PA vehicle code, and if you have been found guilty of the violations.

If the Philadelphia Traffic Court is listed, do not waste your time, you MUST go to the court to get a report of what the requirements are. There is no way to call or write to get your list of tickets.
(If you are not in Pennsylvania, or there is no way to get there during normal operating hours, you can contact License Restoration Services Inc. for more information on how we can help) www.licenserestoration.com

The biggest misconception with old tickets that I hear constantly is "My license is suspended for parking tickets". In Pennsylvania a parking ticket can NEVER suspend your license. Even if you ignore them and owe thousands those parking tickets have no effect on your license.

Term Suspension - these suspensions are the penalty for some moving violation (Driving under suspension, DUI, reckless driving, no insurance, and more). Term suspensions can be as short as 15 days and be as long as 2 years. These type of suspensions are set by Pennsylvania law and PennDOT will make sure you serve every day of the suspension before restoring your license. You need to make sure you are getting credit for the suspension time that has accrued.

There are few exceptions to the suspension types above. I will be covering these in future posts.

Judgment Suspensions
Act 122 Suspension
Act 151 Prison Release Requirement
Indefinite Cancel
Habitual Offender Revocation

This should get you started on the road to restoration. As always if there are questions feel free to leave them in the comments. I will do my best to reply quickly.

Thank you for reading!
I hope this helps with your goal of getting that suspended license restored, and please look for more posts on the details listed above.

Vince