When David Hay saw the flashing lights of a cop car in his rearview mirror, his first thought was that he might lose his job. He was driving with a suspended license, the result of traffic tickets he couldn’t afford to pay and a job he couldn’t get to by bus.
Hay was hit with the tickets back in 2006 and wasn’t able to pay them. Then, he spent six years in jail and when he got out — with the tickets, plus interest looming — he still had no way to pay them. So, he kept driving because he didn’t know how else to get to work every day.
“To get anything done, you have to be able to drive,” says Hay, 30, who worked for Washington and Idaho Railroad in Spangle when he was pulled over and cited late last year.
It’s not an uncommon situation in Washington, where some 300,000 people had their licenses suspended in 2011. But local advocates are hoping a case before the Washington Supreme Court could change that. In March, the court will hear from man who lost his driver’s license for failing to pay a ticket and will argue that it’s unconstitutional to fine people if they are unable to pay their tickets.
“This automatic suspension for failure to pay has a devastating effect on indigent drivers,” write the man’s attorneys, from Olympia-based Cushman Law Offices, in their opening brief for the case. “Since they have no means to pay the fine, they will never regain their licenses. They will be permanently cut off from employment opportunities that could provide the only legitimate means to pay the fine.”
If the court agrees, judges may have to prove that someone had the ability to pay and chose not to before their license can be suspended for a failure to pay.
“In today’s society, driving is not a privilege — it’s a necessity,” says Julie Schaffer, an attorney at Spokane’s Center for Justice, who is watching the case closely and helped author a report out this week on people who’ve lost their licenses.
As they await the court’s decision, there is some relief for people like Hays. The Center for Justice and the city prosecutor’s office run relicensing programs, which pull participants’ tickets from collections and get them on a payment plan — usually $25 a month — to start whittling away at their debt. They get their licenses back as they’re paying, rather than afterward, to allow them to continue working or looking for a job.
Participants also take traffic and budgeting classes to learn about traffic rules and how to manage their finances to keep up their monthly payments. Hays went through the center’s program and is paying off his debt. Without that, he says he would have owed something like $2,000.
The city’s program, unlike the center’s, turns away people with crimes against persons on their records. Still, it’s seen more than 6,500 participants, who’ve paid about $2.5 million to the city and county so far (though the total owed in traffic fines to counties in the region is close to $10 million, according to data from the city prosecutor’s office).
Spokane Municipal Judge Michelle Szambelan says the ability to pay should be a factor in how people are punished.
“Part of being a judge is listening and issuing a just decision based on the facts,” she says. “I don’t know how you could do that without listening to people.”
I know many people, who have paid their large fines and cleared the records. I also know of people who have worked with collections to get the amount reduced. They would rather get something than nothing. But these same people, who are described in the story, have not taken responsibility to tried to remedy the situation they created. I don´t feel sorry for them. I just feel sorry for the people who may be injured and their property damaged by people who should not be driving in the first place. Jan 19, 2013 | Reply to this comment
I consider myself a very responsible driver, and I still managed to get one of those lovely traffic-camera red light tickets a couple months back for a right turn on red, which I contested unsuccessfully and eventually paid. For me, someone who has a savings account and a decent job, no big deal, just annoying. If, however, I were a single mom living paycheck-to-paycheck, that ticket could easily have constituted 10% or more of my monthly income, which would likely bring me to a place of having to choose between not paying utilities, not putting food on the table for part of the month, or not paying my ticket. Every one of my potential options would now have farther-reaching implications for me next month, many of which would result in me owing more money than I did before. Little situations like this are often how people end up in big time trouble when they don´t have family support or financial reserves to fall back on.
I certainly commend the efforts of the Center for Justice, and would encourage those who are offended by this proposition to attempt empathy before offering judgment.
Jan 22, 2013 | Reply to this comment