Drivers License Attorneys in Raleigh & Asheville North Carolina
North Carolina is a difficult state to live in without a driver’s license. Our public transportation system doesn’t have the infrastructure to make it feasible for most people to be able to consistently get to work. If you appear in criminal court, you will see that a good percentage of cases being prosecuted in district court are for driving while license revoked (DWLR).
DWLR falls into two significantly different flavors, with the key difference being whether the underlying reason for the revocation involved a DWI. If your license is revoked for a DWI and you are caught driving, you face a Class 1 misdemeanor and potential jail time. If your license is revoked for a failure to appear in court or a failure to pay a fine, driving is a Class 3 misdemeanor. You will more likely get court costs and a fine, but don’t be fooled by the slap on the wrist. You hurt your chances of getting your license restored every time you plea or are found guilty of a moving violation while your license is revoked regardless of why.
Revocations Stemming From Unpaid Fines
Fay & Grafton has represented hundreds of clients on auto-related charges in North Carolina
Many license revocations result from an inability to pay traffic fines. When you are found guilty of a driving offense, you typically have to pay court costs and a fine. Failure to pay after 20 days will result in a revocation of your license. Your license will remain revoked at least until it is paid.
If an individual’s license is revoked, he or she still needs to live. Often, a person drives anyway and risks the repercussions if caught. In North Carolina, the chances are good that such an individual will be caught. Many police cars are equipped with sensors that read license plates of surrounding cars. Police software runs those license plates and reports back to the officer if the registered owner of that car does not have a valid driver’s license. So even if you are driving at or under the speed limit obeying all traffic laws, you are likely to be pulled over.
The good news is that most records are fixable. If you would like one of our attorneys to review your driving record, get a copy of your full driving record and send it to us. If you don’t have time to do that, we will get your record for you. You need to be able to drive legally in this state and the lawyers at Fay & Grafton can help.