Tag: Angela Ciolfi

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UPDATE: Northam calls for end of automatic driver’s license suspensions

Governor Ralph Northam was at Legal Aid Justice Center to call for an end to suspending driver’s licenses without consideration of ability to pay. Courtesy Legal Aid Justice Center

Governor Ralph Northam was in Charlottesville today to announce a budget amendment that would end the automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court fines and costs. The amendment would also reinstate driving privileges for 627,000 Virginians whose licenses are suspended.

At Legal Aid Justice Center, which has filed suit against the commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles for the automatic suspensions that don’t consider someone’s ability to pay, Northam said, “It is time that we end this unjust practice and allow hardworking Virginians to get back to work”

A bill to end the practice failed in this year’s General Assembly, and one concern of legislators was that part of at $145 license reinstatement fee goes to the DMV and the Trauma Center. Northam said he’s providing $9 million in his budget amendment to cover the impact of the loss of the fee revenue.

Brianna Morgan, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, described losing her license over a minor traffic infraction during a high-risk pregnancy when she had no money. She was unable to take her father, who’d had a stroke, to doctor’s appointments. When her son had an asthma attack at school, it took an hour on the bus to get there. “Suspending people’s driver’s licenses for court debt they can’t pay hurts families,” she said. “It hurt mine.”

Plaintiff Brianna Morgan, center, with Delegate Cliff Hayes, Legal Aid Justice Center executive director Angela Ciolfi, Senator Jennifer McClellan, and Legal Aid policy coordinator Amy Woolard following the governor’s announcement that he wants to end automatic driver’s license suspensions. Legal Aid Justice Center

“The practice of suspending a person’s driver’s license for nonpayment of court fines and costs is inequitable—it’s past time we end it,” said Northam. “A driver’s license is critical to daily life, including a person’s ability to maintain a job. Eliminating a process that envelops hundreds of thousands of Virginians in a counterproductive cycle is not only fair, it’s also the right thing to do.”

Northam’s amendment goes back before the legislature when it reconvenes April 3.

The lawsuit, Stinnie v. Holcomb, was back in U.S. District Court March 25  after a big victory before Christmas. That’s when federal Judge Norman Moon issued a preliminary injunction reinstating the plaintiffs’ licenses, and said they were likely to prevail in their arguments the “license suspension scheme” is unconstitutional.

In the latest hearing, the state argued a motion to dismiss, still insisting driving is not a fundamental right, and that a traffic summons and a form given in court offered people plenty of notice that their license would be suspended 30 days after their conviction if they didn’t pay up—and if they read the form, they’d know they could request a payment plan, community service, or just ask the judge to forego the fine and court costs all together.

“What if a person 15 days later runs into a government shutdown and doesn’t get a check?” asked Moon. “What tells them they’re entitled to a hearing?”

“There is no notice before the automatic suspension,” said McGuireWoods attorney Jonathan Blank, who, with Legal Aid Justice Center, represents the plaintiffs.

He said the automatic suspension of driver’s licenses is a coercive way to collect debt, a technique private creditors can’t use. “It’s crazy and it’s not constitutional,” said Blank. “People are threatened with jail if they can’t pay their debts.”

He also called the state law “one of the worst statutes that’s in the Code of Virginia today.”

The plaintiffs filed a motion to certify a class action that would include everyone whose license is currently suspended and all future suspensions.

The commonwealth disagreed, and said the class was way over broad and would include people who could afford to pay.

“Every individual deserves the right to notice [of license suspension] regardless of their ability to pay,” said McGuireWoods attorney Laura Lange.

Judge Moon did not rule on either motion, and a weeklong trial is scheduled to begin August 5.

Legal Aid Justice Center executive director Angela Ciolfi says she can’t predict when or how the judge will rule, but “relief can’t come soon enough for the hundreds of thousands of families living under this brutally unconstitutional law.”

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Punishing: Repeal of automatic driver’s license suspensions dies in subcommittee

Delegate Rob Bell was on the subcommittee that killed a repeal of automatic driver’s license suspensions.  AMY JACKSON SMITH

Things were looking good for opponents of Virginia’s automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court costs. A federal judge had opined the state law is likely unconstitutional, a Republican state senator carried a bill that repealed the law, and it passed the Senate 36-4.

Then it got to a House subcommittee, where four Republicans, including Delegate Rob Bell, torpedoed the measure 4-3.

Senator Bill Stanley, a criminal defense attorney who represents a chunk of Southside, was not pleased, particularly with Bell and House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert and their grip on the Courts of Justice subcommittee.

He told the Roanoke Times February 11, “They just want to continue to punish people, they just want to continue to punish the poor, they just want to continue to put their will forth as the will of the commonwealth, two people determining the fate of 600,000 Virginians. This is rule by fiat.”

Stanley, who carried the same bill last year, figured it had a better chance this year, particularly after Judge Norman Moon issued a preliminary injunction in Stinnie v. DMV ordering the reinstatement of the plaintiffs’ licenses, which had been automatically suspended when they couldn’t afford to pay the fines and court costs, which thrust them into spiraling debt and, in some cases, jail for driving on suspended licenses.

Legislators who didn’t support the measure last year told Stanley they would vote for it this year, he says. “When Judge Moon made his decision, I thought we’re either going to fix this problem of debtors prison or a federal judge will,” says Stanley. “It looks like the judge will.”

He calls the automatic suspensions “punitive,” and the $145 DMV reinstatement fee a tax. “This has nothing to do with bad driving,” he says.

Bell “respectfully disagrees” with Stanley. For serious offenses like passing a school bus or texting while driving, “when someone violates those, I do think it’s appropriate they be punished and they pay some penalty,” he says.

The General Assembly passed a law in 2017 that requires courts to offer payment plans or community service. “As long as you’re on the payment plan, you have your license and you can drive,” says Bell. “We do require you to have some punishment.”

“You miss one payment and your license is suspended,” retorts Stanley. And those plans are used “exclusively for those who are in front of the court. It does nothing for the 600,000 who have already had their licenses suspended.”

Stanley says the automatic license suspensions punish people for being poor, and makes it difficult for them to get to jobs and provide for their families. “It perpetuates poverty,” he says. “I don’t think you can have economic growth without removing the crushing cycle of poverty.”

He adds, “You’d think Republicans would want to get people off dependency.”

Angela Ciolfi, executive director of the Legal Aid Justice Center, represents the plaintiffs in the federal case. She says her team did an analysis of the results of the payment plan legislation and found that the new policy made almost no difference in the number of licenses suspended.

“And the suspension law hasn’t changed, either,” she says. “When someone doesn’t pay or falls off a payment plan, the law says that suspension is automatic, with no notice, no hearing, and no consideration of why the person didn’t pay.”

She’s working on making the case a class action suit, and anticipates the parties will be back in court soon.

Stanley believes that if Judge Moon orders the DMV to reinstate all the licenses suspended for nonpayment of fines, “it will create havoc in the DMV” that could be avoided if legislators fixed the problem.

And he’s still not happy that a subcommittee killed a bill he thought had broad bipartisan support in the General Assembly. “The rule of a few is determining the future of 600,000 people.”

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Prosecutors pump the brakes on suspended license cases

A lawsuit to help prevent those unable to pay court fines from spiraling into further debt and prosecution got a significant boost last week.

Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania announced January 4 that he will no longer prosecute people charged with driving on a license that was suspended solely for failure to pay court costs or fines.

Platania’s announcement comes on the heels of a December 21 preliminary injunction by a federal judge in Charlottesville, which ordered Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard Holcomb to reinstate the driver’s licenses of three plaintiffs who automatically lost their licenses when they were unable to pay court costs and fines. Judge Norman Moon predicted attorneys will win the case, and said such automatic suspensions are unconstitutional.

Platania said the injunction raises “significant concerns” about prosecuting people who have had their licenses suspended in that way. He will continue to prosecute other suspensions for DUIs or restitutions, he says.

“I think Joe did the right thing and I’m really proud he did it,” says Liz Murtagh, head of the public defender’s office. “It’ll make a big difference for people,” she adds, particularly her clients, who often can’t afford to pay their fines as they’re leaving the courtroom, starting a “vicious, vicious” cycle.

Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci says his office put a halt to prosecuting the cases because of the injunction. The cases have been continued in general district court until the constitutional issues have been resolved or the injunction is lifted.

Before Tracci confirmed that his office was not prosecuting those cases, local immigration attorney Tanishka Cruz predicted it wouldn’t happen in the county “as long as Robert Tracci is the commonwealth’s attorney.”

She says Tracci’s office has historically taken a “one size fits all” approach and has sent many of her clients to jail for such an offense.

Says Tracci, “Commonwealth’s attorneys have no more discretion to ignore a federal injunction than to ignore federal immigration laws.”

Attorneys with the Legal Aid Justice Center are representing the three plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit against the DMV.

“We are very hopeful that between the judicial ruling and the bipartisan momentum for repeal, the time has come to end this destructive practice,” says Legal Aid Executive Director Angela Ciolfi. “Meanwhile, the ruling casts doubt on the constitutionality of all suspensions flowing from the statute, and it makes sense for law enforcement to press pause on enforcement.”

Updated January 9 at 12:12pm to clarify that Robert Tracci stopped prosecuting these cases when the injunction was issued.

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In brief: DMV’s court order, Brown’s abrupt closing, Murray’s lump of coal and more

Courtesy DMV

Driver’s license suspensions under siege

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction December 21 and ordered Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard Holcomb to reinstate the driver’s licenses of three plaintiffs who automatically lost their licenses when they were unable to pay court costs and fines. The judge said they are likely to prevail in their arguments that such automatic suspensions are unconstitutional.

That same week, Governor Ralph Northam called for an end to the practice. And Republican state Senator Bill Stanley has filed a bill that would end the automatic suspensions.

The class-action lawsuit—Stinnie v. Holcomb—challenges the automatic loss of driving privileges regardless of a person’s ability to pay and without notice or a hearing. Brought by the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, the case alleges that approximately 650,000 Virginians have had their licenses suspended for reasons that have nothing to do with driving violations and solely for failure to pay fines.

In his ruling, Judge Norman Moon says, “While the Court recognizes the Commonwealth’s interest in ensuring the collection of court fines and costs, these interests are not furthered by a license suspension scheme that neither considers an individual’s ability to pay nor provides him with an opportunity to be heard on the matter.”

Two of the plaintiffs—Damian Stinnie and Adrianne Johnson—are from Charlottesville, and Moon’s injunction noted how the inability to drive affected their ability to find employment and “created a cycle of debt.”

His ruling only affects the plaintiffs in the case, and the DMV is ordered to reinstate their licenses without charging its $145 reinstatement fee.

“Today’s ruling is a victory for the Constitution and for common sense. The Court stated unequivocally that Virginia’s driver’s license suspension statute likely violates procedural due process rights, says Angela Ciolfi, executive director of Legal Aid Justice Center, in a release.

Since the case was filed in 2016, the issue, which advocates call a “modern-day debtors prison,” has gained national attention. Lawsuits have been filed in six other states and a federal judge in Tennessee recently issued a similar injunction there.

Quote of the week

“We cannot ignore the role of firearms in mass school shootings, nor should we avoid our responsibility as legislators to act.”—Democratic minority report to a House of Delegates committee report on school safety that does not address gun violence

In brief

Eugenics landmark closes

The Central Virginia Training Center outside Lynchburg, where 4,000 Virginians were sterilized, often without their knowledge, will close in 2020. Charlottesvillian Carrie Buck was sent there in 1924, because she was pregnant and accused of promiscuity and “feeble-mindedness.” In Buck v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court famously ruled that “three generations of imbeciles are enough,” and okayed her later sterilization. The institution stopped performing sterilizations in 1952 but continued to care for the intellectually disabled.

Hung out to dry

Brown’s Cleaners abruptly shuttered its four stores Christmas Eve, leaving employees without paychecks—and customers wondering how to retrieve their dry cleaning. A sign said to check legal notices in the Daily Progress about how to pick up orders, but as of December 28, the Progress said it had received no info from the 71-year-old business, which took its website down and left phones unanswered. NBC29 reports the company declared bankruptcy.

Virginians favor pot decriminalization

A new ACLU poll shows 71 percent of registered voters favor dropping criminal penalties for small amounts of marijuana, and 63 percent say it should be legal and regulated like alcohol. The poll also shows a majority believe that race or economic status influence how one is treated in the criminal justice system, and 62 percent say fewer people should be sent to prison because it costs taxpayers too darn much.

Garrett’s swan song

Tom Garrett file photo

In his last days as 5th District representative, Tom Garrett saw President Donald Trump sign his bill renaming the Barracks Road Shopping Center post office in honor of Captain Humayun Khan, a UVA grad who died in Iraq in 2004. The Republican also delivered a bipartisan letter to Trump opposing the president’s decision to remove U.S. troops from Syria, calling it a threat to national security.

Lump o’ coal

Jim Murray contributed photo

The office of UVA Vice Rector Jim Murray got a visit from one of “Santa’s elves,” who delivered a piece of coal and said the venture capitalist had been naughty this year for opposing a living wage and calling its proponents “intellectually lazy,” according to a video circulated by Virginia Organizing.

Another Landes challenger

Ivy resident Lauren Thompson, 30, became the second Democrat to seek the nomination to run against 12-termer Republican Delegate Steve Landes, 59, whose 25th District, mainly in Augusta and Rockingham counties, includes a swipe of western Albemarle. Thompson, a Navy veteran, faces Augusta activist Jenni Kitchen, 37, for the Dem nod.

By the numbers

Housing affordability

The folks at the Virginia Public Access Project are always crunching the numbers, and last week they published how much of your take-home pay goes to housing, depending on where you live.

While Charlottesville may seem like one of the most expensive markets in the state, in Emporia City, 32.7 percent of median household income goes for housing, compared to nearly 25 percent in Charlottesville and 20.14 percent in Albemarle County. Highland County is the cheapest place to live, taking only an 11.6 percent bite out of paychecks, according to VPAP.

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In brief: Take it or leaf it, when racists call, Facebook reprimand and more

Drawing lines in the leaves

It’s that time of year, when the natural cycle of trees becomes a source of controversy, lighting up Nextdoor. One neighbor’s decision to let them lie to decompose and enrich the soil—either through environmental conscientiousness or sloth—is another’s annoyance when leaves drift into a meticulously raked yard.

Some go the mowing route to speed the breakdown of leafy matter into compost, while other city dwellers, who receive a free roll of plastic bags, rake and bag and send everything off to Panorama Farms. Or they corral the leaves to the curb to be sucked up.

It’s enough of an issue that the city is conducting a survey at charlottesville.org/leaves to see what citizens think of its collection method.

Here’s what we learned from city leaf guru Marty Silman:

  • Both bagged and loose leaves go to Panorama Paydirt for composting.
  • The city distributes 25 plastic bags per resident, and anticipates passing out 350,000 this season, at a cost of $50,000.
  • The bags are not compostable nor are they recycled, but they can be returned if you don’t want them, to 305 Fourth St. NW.
  • Last year the city collected an estimated 98 tons of bagged leaves and 145 tons of loose leaves.

Quote of the week

“I didn’t respond to request for comment because I think these reporters are, a lot of them, not all of them…but the majority of these reporters, they have ill intentions and it’s not how I roll.”—Mayor Nikuyah Walker on Facebook Live in response to a Daily Progress article about councilors’ credit card spending

In brief

Racist robocalls

Idaho white supremacist group Road to Power again targeted Charlottesville residents with racist, anti-Semitic calls as jury selection for the James Fields trial began. The same group slimed the area with calls around the August 12 anniversary.

Love refiles civil suit

Sharon Love, the mother of deceased UVA lacrosse player Yeardley Love, has refiled her $30-million wrongful death lawsuit against George Huguely, her daughter’s former boyfriend who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2012 and sentenced to 23 years in prison. In June, Love dropped the case, called a nonsuit in legal terms, which gave her six months to refile.

Having his say

A memoir from City Councilor Wes Bellamy, who was vice-mayor when he called for removal of the city’s Confederate statues, will be available January 1. Monumental: It Was Never About a Statue covers the year before and after white supremacists came to town to protest removal of the statues. Says the book’s press release, “Step into his shoes and read what it felt like to be in the midst of a war for the soul of a community.”

Booted from Facebook

Former C-VILLE editor and Summer of Hate author Hawes Spencer was banned from Facebook for 24 hours November 30 for posting memes that will be presented as evidence in the murder trial of James Fields. Fields posted the images of a car driving into a crowd on Instagram three months before he did so in Charlottesville.

This is the image that got Spencer banned from Facebook for 24 hours.

Going rogue

Virginia students at the largest evangelical Christian school in the country have created an independent news website, the Liberty Torch, after Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. vetoed a negative article about Donald Trump in 2016 in the school’s official newspaper, the Liberty Champion, and said the school administration must approve student articles.

New office

County officials announced last week the creation of the Office of Equity and Inclusion under director Siri Russell. The office formalizes the county’s strategy to engage in work that promotes equity, using data to assess equitable access, according to Russell. 

New leader

Legal Aid Justice Center’s director of litigation and advocacy Angela Ciolfi will take on a new role as its executive director this month. She succeeds Mary Bauer, who left recently for a job at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Ciolfi is now suing the DMV and asked a judge for an injunction to stop the automatic suspension of driver’s licenses, often for offenses that have nothing to do with driving. 

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‘Modern-day debtors’ prison’: Injunction sought to stop practice of suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid fines

Caption Legal Aid Justice Center attorney Angela Ciolfi wants a judge to order the DMV to stop automatically suspending driver’s licenses because of unpaid fines and court costs. Staff photo

It’s a tough argument to make: That a woman with three children who makes around $9 an hour, who can’t buy enough groceries to meet minimum nutritional needs, and who shares a bedroom with two kids in an apartment with another family, has plenty of money left over to pay $100 a month to get her suspended driver’s license back.

Yet that was the case the Commonwealth of Virginia made at a November 15 hearing. The state suggested that if the woman gave up her cellphone, she’d have the $100 a month and that losing access to communication would in no way would cause her “irreparable harm.”

The case is Stinnie v. Holcomb, and it was filed in 2016 by the Legal Aid Justice Center, which claims the state’s automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court fines and fees that often have nothing to do with actual driving infractions, is unconstitutional because it happens with no notice of the suspension, no consideration of the person’s ability to pay, and falls disproportionately upon the poor.

At a four-and-a-half-hour hearing in U.S. District Court, plaintiffs’ attorneys asked Judge Norman Moon for a preliminary injunction to immediately stop the automatic suspensions.

Moon has seen this case before. In early 2017, he heard the state’s motion to dismiss, which argued that Richard Holcomb, the DMV commissioner, was not the proper defendant and federal court not the proper venue. Moon agreed and dismissed the case, but a federal appeals court sent it back to him.

This time, Moon asked a lot more questions about how indigent people were supposed to pay staggering court costs—and then the additional $145 the DMV charges to reinstate a license. At times he called a driver’s license a “property right,” veering from the state’s assertion that a license is a privilege.

“We’re seeking an order declaring the statute unconstitutional,” said Legal Aid Justice Center attorney Angela Ciolfi. That’s a possibility Moon had considered last year in his decision dismissing the case, because people get no notice or hearing about the license suspension—in effect no due process.

Adrianne Johnson, 34, is one of the plaintiffs. The native Charlottesvillian has three children and worked as a certified nursing assistant until she was convicted of a drug charge in Brunswick County. She didn’t get jail time, but had court costs of $865. She was paying $100 a month until she lost her job. Unaware that her license had been suspended for the unpaid fines, she was then charged with driving with a suspended license. After a second suspension, she stopped driving because a third conviction carries jail time.

Not having a license has affected her job opportunities, she testified. Though she managed to find another job, the lack of a driver’s license is preventing her from being promoted to manager, she said, because that position requires driving to make daily bank deposits.

“It’s very stressful, very inconvenient to me and my children,” she said. Her daughter has medical issues and her son plays sports. “I can’t take him or go to any of his games.”

With a license, she said, “I would be able to have a better paying job. I could pay the court costs and fines.”

Assistant Attorney General Margaret O’Shea asked Johnson if she’d gone to the Brunswick court to ask for community service.

“No, I didn’t know about that,” said Johnson. “And how am I going to get to Brunswick? I don’t have a license.”

O’Shea suggested that with Johnson’s $200/month rent for a room she shares with two of her children, she should have plenty of money left over to pay her fines.

“I have nothing left over after I pay my expenses,” said Johnson. “It just leaves me with nothing. Nothing at all.”

The plaintiffs called Diana Pearce, a University of Washington professor who created the self-sufficiency standard, which determines that amount of income needed to meet basic needs.

Pearce looked at Johnson’s income and expenses, and said, “She’s not able to meet her basic needs based on her income.”

O’Shea asked if the numbers meant Johnson had $400 a month left over, and that with the $200 rent, “she had a roof over her head.”

The money is not extra income, maintained Pearce. Johnson is “not spending enough on housing and nutritional needs,” and sharing a room with two kids was not meeting basic needs, she added.

Steven Peterson is a microeconomist who testified that the loss of a driver’s license for unpaid fines “disproportionately affected poor people,” with 40 to 45 percent losing their jobs. If they found another job, he said, 88 percent had lower incomes.

Using numbers from the DMV, he said in 2017, 977,891 people had their licenses suspended, and 647,517 of those were suspended only as a result of not paying fines and court costs.

McGuireWoods attorney Jonathan Blank asked the judge to declare the suspensions unconstitutional. “You cannot punish a person who lacks the resources to pay a debt,” he said. “We’re here because this is a modern-day debtors prison.”

Moon seemed skeptical of the commonwealth’s arguments that the costs on indigent people caused no “irreparable harm,” and said, “They shouldn’t be punished if they cannot pay.”

But with an eye toward the weather, Moon recessed the court without ruling and said he had to get to Lynchburg.

“I feel very heartened by the judge’s questions,” said Ciolfi. “He clearly gets the unfairness” and the “devastation” to people’s lives.

 

 

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Suspended licenses: Lawsuit back in federal court

Legal Aid Justice Center attorney Angela Ciolfi again will try to convince a federal judge that suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court costs without consideration of the defendant’s ability to pay is unconstitutional. Staff photo

It’s not just bad driving that has caused nearly 1 million Virginians’ licenses to be suspended. Failure to pay court costs—often unrelated to being behind the wheel at all—has put indigent citizens in a downward spiral of debt, unemployment, and incarceration, according to a civil suit filed by the Legal Aid Justice Center two years ago.

In a February 2017 hearing in U.S. District Court for Stinnie v. Holcomb, lawyers from the state attorney general’s office representing defendant Richard Holcomb, commissioner of the DMV, argued that Holcomb was not the appropriate defendant and the federal district court in Charlottesville was not the right jurisdiction to hear the case. Judge Norman Moon agreed and dismissed the case.

In May, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case back to district court to allow the plaintiffs to amend their suit, which they did September 11.

“We spent a lot of time on what the DMV commissioner does,” says Angela Ciolfi, Legal Aid’s director of litigation and advocacy. License suspension “cannot be accomplished without the DMV, which gets revenue to reinstate licenses.”

The amended complaint adds four new plaintiffs from across the state. “They’ve all been treated exactly the same by the DMV,” says Ciolfi.

Two of the plaintiffs are from Charlottesville. Adrianne Johnson, 34, was working as a certified nursing assistant making $8.86 an hour in 2013 when she was convicted of a drug-related charge. She did not get jail time, but she was ordered to pay $865 in court costs, much of that for her court-appointed lawyer.

“So many people who live paycheck to paycheck don’t have a dime to spare,” says Ciolfi.

Although Johnson was on a payment plan, she couldn’t afford to make regular payments and her license was suspended, according to the suit. She continued to work—and to drive to get to her job, take care of her family, and take her daughter to medical appointments. In November 2017, she was convicted of driving on a suspended license.

The court put her on a payment plan requiring her debt be paid in six months, which the minimum wage earner could not afford, and when she missed a payment, her license was again suspended in May 2018, according to the complaint.

Johnson stopped driving after the November conviction, lives with her two children in a crowded apartment with another family—and struggles to pay rent and buy groceries, much less pay the roughly $900 she owes in court costs and the $150 it would take to reinstate her license.

“It’s not just about the people whose licenses have been suspended,” says Ciolfi, “but it’s about their families who can’t move forward.”

And in the two years the case has been pending, “we know of hundreds of thousands more suspensions and convictions of driving while suspended,” says Ciolfi.

She points out that states like California have repealed laws requiring license suspension for unpaid court debt, and in Mississippi, the state official in charge of suspensions has stopped enforcing the statute.

“These statutes are not holding up to constitutional scrutiny in other states,” she says.

The suspensions fall disproportionately on “low-income persons and communities of color,” alleges the complaint. African Americans make up 20 percent of Virginia’s population, but receive nearly half the orders of suspension for unpaid court debt and almost 60 percent of convictions for driving with licenses suspended because of court debt, according to the suit.

Ciolfi would like the General Assembly to repeal debt-driven suspensions, and says the Senate passed a bill to do so earlier this year, but it died in the House of Delegates.

In the meantime, she’ll ask the court for a preliminary injunction to stop the suspensions and a certification for a class action against the state law she says is unconstitutional.

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‘Constitutional crisis:’ Judge hears DMV’s motion to dismiss

Staff photo

Not in attendance at a civil case hearing February 2 in U.S. District Court were the four plaintiffs who are suing Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles. One reason for their absences, according to their attorney, is because their driver’s licenses are suspended.

The case, filed by Legal Aid Justice Center against DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb, contends that Virginia’s suspension of licenses for nonpayment of fines and court costs, including for convictions that have nothing to do with driving, is unconstitutional because it doesn’t take into account the driver’s ability to pay, gives no notice of the suspension, and it denies due process and equal protection to the poor.

The DMV, represented by Assistant Attorney General Margaret O’Shea, offered a list of reasons why the case should be thrown out: That Holcomb has sovereign immunity. That the state statute offered the option of community service. That the suit was filed in the wrong court, and that people receive notice by the “mere existence of the statute” and are told at the time of their conviction their license will be suspended if they don’t pay fines within 30 days.

“We’re talking driver’s licenses—not someone being locked up,” said O’Shea.

She suggested that the court should give the state of Virginia time to remedy the problem, and said the lack of indigent payment plans has “all been fixed” by the Supreme Court of Virginia’s Rule 1:24 last November, which went into effect February 1.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Jonathan Blank with McGuire Woods wasn’t buying it. He noted that 914,000 Virginia license holders—one out of six state drivers—had their licenses suspended with no hearing.

UVA law professor Leslie Kendrick, another plaintiff’s attorney, called the suspensions of nearly a million licenses “a constitutional crisis.” A driver’s license is a constitutional right and being poor is not a good reason for taking it away, she argued. “Crimes didn’t lead” to the suspensions, she said. “Debt is the cause.”

Angela Ciolfi with Legal Aid Justice Center doesn’t think Rule 1:24 is a panacea to the problem. It would not help people who never had payment plans like plaintiff Damian Stinnie, a Charlottesville resident who owes four courts a total of $1,500.

To get his license reinstated, he could be required to pay 20 percent to each court, a total of $300, and that doesn’t include the DMV reinstatement fees, which could bring the total to $475, an impossible sum for someone who’s indigent, said Ciolfi.

And if he misses a single payment to a single court, his license could be suspended again, she said.

Counting on General Assembly consideration to fix the law, she said, “is still a hope and a prayer,” with the 1,000 bills it typically has to consider.

Ciolfi asked Judge Norman Moon to declare the state law unconstitutional and to enjoin the state from suspending licenses until the matter is remedied.

Moon sounded like he’d rather do anything else, and he asked the plaintiffs’ attorneys if there wasn’t a way to handle this “without going to a low-level federal court.”

O’Shea sounded the same theme. “I understand the appeal of a splashy federal court ruling,” she said. “This is not the right vehicle for their claim.”

However, there’s already been some weighing in on the federal level. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a brief in support of the plaintiffs in November, and called Virginia’s process unconstitutional.

Blank asked the court to deny the motion to dismiss and give the plaintiffs the opportunity to argue the case. “I haven’t been in a case with this many people with this much at stake,” he said.

Added Kendrick, “If everything the defendant says is true, we wouldn’t have 914,000 Virginians with their licenses suspended.”

Fact check

Lawyers representing the commonwealth say people who can’t afford to pay traffic fines already have the option of getting a payment plan or community service. C-VILLE checked with the local general district courts.

In Charlottesville, Clerk Mary Trimble said both were available “if somebody comes in and asks.” She also said a down payment is required for a payment plan.

A clerk in Albemarle General District Court, after checking with Judge William Barkley, referred a reporter to the court’s page on the Virginia Judicial website.

“Payments must be received within 30 days following your court date to prevent the suspension of your operator’s/driver’s license for failure to pay,” it says, followed by the cryptic, “Payments made in accordance with ‘time to pay’ or deferred payment agreements are due on the agreed upon date.”

The page does not mention community service.