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License Suspended for warrent

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pitgirl70

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? SD
I have a 12 year old failure to appear warrant out of MD. I currently live in SD. I moved here from NE. I have a valid NE driver's license. I was pulled over by a state trooper last week because my muffler was too loud. He ran my name and my NE license was valid. He then came back and said that my MD license which was under my previous married name was suspended in 2003. I haven't had a MD license since 1994 and he took my NE license and wrote me a ticket for driving on a suspended license. I called MD and they said it was suspended for the warrant. How can they suspend a license that I didn't even have and I just renewed my NE license last year and nothing came up about my old license being suspended.
 


Bretagne

Member
Because of the interstate compact system. Most states belong to it, including Nebraska and South Dakota. Maryland is not a member, so when South Dakota discovered you aren't valid in Maryland, they took your NE license.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver_License_Compact#Exceptions

The theory is "one driver, one license", which generally means that you need to be valid in all 50 states or you are valid in none.

The only way to clear this up will be to face your bench warrant in Maryland and get your Maryland license reinstated. If you live in SD you need a SD license, not a NE license. Clear up the Maryland warrant and crime, pay the cost to get your Maryland license reinstated, then get a SD drivers license.

More info for reinstatement in Maryland at http://mva.state.md.us/AboutMVA/INFO/26200-01T.htm

Good luck.
 

acmb05

Senior Member
What is the name of your state? SD
I have a 12 year old failure to appear warrant out of MD. I currently live in SD. I moved here from NE. I have a valid NE driver's license. I was pulled over by a state trooper last week because my muffler was too loud. He ran my name and my NE license was valid. He then came back and said that my MD license which was under my previous married name was suspended in 2003. I haven't had a MD license since 1994 and he took my NE license and wrote me a ticket for driving on a suspended license. I called MD and they said it was suspended for the warrant. How can they suspend a license that I didn't even have and I just renewed my NE license last year and nothing came up about my old license being suspended.
Here is what I had to do. Of course mine was a different state but it may work the same.

Since it was a failure to appear( mine was in 1987) I had to go to NC and ask to be put on the docket for that day.( I did this just this past March.) I had to get there right as the court house opened to do this. I then went in front of the judge and asked that the ticket and failure to appear be dismissed since it had been so long. They did dismiss it and I then had to take a copy of the papers from court to the DL office and pay the reinstatement fee there and show them the papers where it was dismissed.

After doing that I had to come back to TN and pay reinstatement here also. It will take about 48 hours for it to be taken out of the system. Then you can take the test and everything else required to get your license.

I had no problems in Florida or Michigan with my license. It was only when I moved to TN that it showed up when they ran a check.

You may be able to call a lawyer in MD and see if they will do this for you for a couple hundred bucks. If you don't want to pay a lawyer or can't find one you will have to go to MD yourself. They will not do this over the phone or thru mail. You or your lawyer has to appear in court.
 

garrula lingua

Senior Member
Your lack of understanding stems from thinking along the lines of 'license' being suspended.

What is really being suspended is your driving privileges.
Even if you never had a DL, a state can suspend your driving privileges (unpaid tickets being the most common with bench warrants issued, etc)

Most states honor other states' suspension of driving privileges and will not reissue a drivers license.
 

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