The Problem of Debt-Based Driver’s License Suspensions

By Lindsay Bass-Patel and Rita Grunberg

Did you drive your car today? Maybe you drove to work, to church, or to your kids’ school. Maybe you went to a doctor’s appointment or got groceries. Most of us rely on a car, especially those of us who live in areas without a lot of public transportation. But almost one million North Carolinians (nearly one tenth of our population) either can’t drive – or drive in constant fear – because their driver’s license has been suspended due to unpaid court debt, most often related to traffic infractions. This harms individuals, hurts businesses who need employees, and clogs court dockets.

At the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law, we research the scope of this problem and how it impacts people, courts, and communities. We do this through quantitative methods (gathering data on the number of people who have court debt and resulting license suspensions by county) as well as through qualitative methods (interviewing people who have had their license suspended due to court debt). Last month, we hosted a panel to explore the issue with policy makers and community members.

Census data tells us that about 75% of people in North Carolina currently drive to work. But without a license, people struggle to stay employed. In our 2021 study of North Carolinians whose license had been suspended, 28.5% of people reported eviction as a result. Looking across the country, 35% of people reported to us in a 2023 survey that court debt impacted their ability to obtain food.

People can have debt-related license suspensions for two reasons: 1. Failure to pay a traffic fine or fee (Failure to Comply), and/or 2. Failure to appear in court on a traffic ticket (Failure to Appear). While many stakeholders favor ending the practice of suspending driver’s licenses simply because someone failed to pay their court debt, some are reluctant to also include those who fail to appear in court, seeing it as an issue of accountability.

But what our research shows is that the issue is far more complicated. For one, these are overlapping issues; almost 87,000 people with debt-based license suspensions have charges both of Failure to Comply and Failure to Appear. This can happen if someone attempts to resolve their Failure to Appear but is unsuccessful because they cannot pay the court. Second, we know that there are many reasons people don’t appear in court. It isn’t just a matter of not wanting to take responsibility. People may have issues with childcare or work. Or they may feel that since they know the result – that they can’t pay – it’s not worth coming. At an event hosted by Duke law a few years ago, one woman who’d had her license suspended for Failure to Appear and Failure to Comply said “you already know what's going to happen when you go to court, and I didn't have the money, so I didn't go to court.”

Perhaps most critically, our data shows that suspensions due to Failure to Appear in court actually make up 70% of the basis for driver’s license suspensions.  While we need to ensure people appear in court and resolve their traffic violations, the data shows that Failure to Appear charges are not decreasing, meaning suspending driver’s licenses is not working to incentivize people to come to court. We need to look to more creative ways to encourage court appearance without suspending licenses, which we know harms individuals, businesses, and communities.

Ending debt-related driver’s license suspensions will ease district attorneys’ dockets, allowing them to focus on critical public safety issues; it will improve the lives of almost one million North Carolinians and their families; and it will strengthen our economy, removing barriers to work for hundreds of thousands of people. But our data shows that to fully address this issue, we need to end debt-based driver’s license suspensions for all, not just one subset of people.

Lindsay Bass-Patel is a Policy Analyst and Rita Grunberg is a Data Scientist here at the Wilson Center, where they research the scope and impact of fines, fees, and driver’s license suspensions.