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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | September 15, 2014 02:56 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Stan Saylor |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Clerk of Courts: PennDOT Notification for License Suspension |
| Under current state law, a conviction of certain drug offenses (such as drug possession and drug dealing) results in an automatic six-month drivers’ license suspension from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). In April, news broke about the Philadelphia courts ‘ignoring’ a state law requiring the courts to notify PennDOT about eligible offenses for license suspensions. Sadly, this news came to light following the tragic death of a bicyclist who was run down by a man who had been convicted of a drug possession 16 days before the accident; however, his conviction was never reported to the PennDOT so his license was never suspended. This is not a circumstance of one missed reporting incident by the Philadelphia Courts’ Office of Judicial Records. According to a report compiled by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, of the statewide 90,534 eligible offenses in 2012 which would result in a license suspension, nearly 55,000 were never sent by the courts to PennDOT. Since the Philadelphia incident, several County Clerk of Courts started the process of examining their records (some spanning over a decade) to see if they too failed to make the proper PennDOT notifications. Because there is no statute of limitation for the court to report these eligible offenses to PennDOT, some of these County Clerk of Courts began filing the paperwork for thousands of missed eligible offenses. This means, individuals who committed an eligible offense 10 years ago are now being notified by PennDOT that their drivers’ license is being suspended. While I believe anyone convicted of a crime should serve their sentence, many of these individuals were either unaware their license was ever to be suspended, or they believed they had already served their time for license suspension years ago. These are individuals who need to support their families and who will experience financial hardship impacting their families for an incident that happened years ago. The court has blatantly failed to do its duty. Because of their conviction, they are not eligible for an Occupational Limited License (OLL) which would allow them to drive, under certain conditions, when it is necessary for the driver’s occupation, work, trade, medical treatment or study. Without this ability, they will not be able to work and support their families. This could result in additional strain on taxpayer resources given the large number of eligible offenses across Pennsylvania. To address this issue and ensure these individuals keep their jobs and so they do not become dependent upon state welfare and taxpayers and so others can receive medical treatment, I am introducing legislation to amend Title 75 to allow these individuals to be eligible for an OLL. For purposes of the bill, individuals who receive a license suspension and their notification was not filed by the clerk of courts within the 10-day time frame provided by existing law, shall be eligible for an OLL. For those whose paperwork was timely filed, they will remain ineligible. The bill will also provide an amnesty period for clerk of courts to properly file the necessary documentation for these eligible offenses. Any paperwork filed within the amnesty time period (ending January 1, 2016) shall be deemed valid. Following the close of the amnesty period, if a court misses the 10-day filing period for eligible offenses, the paperwork shall no longer be valid. I hope you will consider joining me in support of this legislation. |
Introduced as HB2492