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Ticketed for Driving Under Suspension (DUS) beyond your suspension date?

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aleshirley

Junior Member
OHIO - My OVI/DUI suspension expired on 6/19/2007. I had dotted every 'I' and crossed every 'T' making sure I had completed everything required of me by the local municipality and the State of OH. I have carried the same insurance since before the initial DUI arrest and have had to provide this proof of insurance NUMEROUS times locally to the BMV and the court and to Columbus (state BMV office). I had beleived I had done everything necessary so much so that the local BMV exchanged my Yellow Plates and updated my registration, of course taking a look at my insurance and months prior I had paid my reinstatement fees and showed proof to the Columbus office and received a new Driver's License. Apparently I need to show Columbus one more time (although I hadn't received any notification of this and there would be no reason for me to fail to do this portion of my reinstatement considering I've carried the same insurance since before the charges) and I was pulled over and ticketed for DUS. I appeared at an arraingment and plead not guilty however I now have to go back to court to prove that this was some sort of error and that the state did not notify me that I must provide this proof, yet again, until after I received the DUS ticket (suspension over 6/19; received DUS ticket 7/3; received letter from state requesting my insurance verification on 7/6) -- Does anyone have any experince with this - Will this get dropped? Will I just be treated as an other ole' DUS offender even though my suspension was expired? I need help and can not afford an attorney and I can not have one appointment because, suprise, I'm not starving so I make too much money.
Any thoughts, suggestion or advice or shared experience will be helpful!
Thanks, ALES
 


seven53

Member
Were you cited for Failure to Reinstate or for Non Compliance/FRA? If Failure to Reinstate it doesn't matter that your suspension period is over if you don't satisfy reinstatement fees with the state. I believe the first time DUS reinstatement fee is $75.00, did you pay this?
 

aleshirley

Junior Member
It is a failure to reinstate. And actually my reinstatement fee was $425 + proof of insurance which was submitted -- months ago. Additionally I recently obtained a new license (also showing insurance), new registration (showing insurance again) and exchanged yellow plates after that (again showing insurance) but the state says I never provided proof of insurance. My insurance never lapsed, changed or renewed throughout my entire suspension period. It took a 3 min phone call and it was corrected with the state however my local muni didn't drop it but is forcing me into court for something that was a simple delay in paperwork. I have all this proof and when I pled not guilty the judge did make it a purposeful verbal note to state that my insurance has been verified and that it has carried through the entire suspension however she didn't let me speak as to why I was pleading not guilty...

So why wasn't it just dropped? Or will it just get dropped once I go back to court in a little more than a month? Can they really impose punishment and fines over something that I VERY CLEARLY took care of just because of paperwork delays?

This is all very ridiculous to me - I could have done none of those things listed above without proof of insurance. Not a one.
 

seven53

Member
I'm sorry, it is $425.00 for DUI reinststement, $75.00 was on an old chart of mine (1990). Anyways....I would have your insurance company give you a notarized policy with it's effective dates of coverage, showing that you never had a lapse in coverage. Once you present this to the judge, your DUS should be dismissed. I would bring all receipts with you as well showing you paid reinstatement fees.I see this error happen alot with Cleveland Municipal Court. They are too big, overworked, underpaid and things seem to fall through the cracks.
 

aleshirley

Junior Member
Thank you. That is good advice. Also FYI - I'm working with Medina City courts (35 miles outside of the Cleveland muni). They aren't so overworked....
 

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