Attorney Puts NJ MVC On Notice Over `Unlawful` License Suspensions

6/15/2015
Attorney Puts NJ MVC On Notice Over 'Unlawful' License Suspensions - Bergen Dispatch
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Home > News > Attorney Puts NJ MVC On Notice Over 'Unlawful' License Suspensions
Attorney Puts NJ MVC On Notice Over 'Unlawful'
License Suspensions
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By Paul Nichols
Wednesday, Jan 28, 2015
NJ attorney David Perry Davis plans to sue
the NJ Motor Vehicle Commission if it
continues suspending driver’s licenses of
parents issued arrest warrants for unpaid
child support.
In a letter to MVC Chief Administrator
Raymond Martinez, Davis put the
commission on notice that the suit is being
prepared and that the commission should
“cease and desist from illegally suspending
driver's licenses where there is no evidence
before the Division that the driver's
Constitutional rights were adhered to”.
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Davis also asked Martinez to refund all reinstatement charges paid by drivers whose licenses
were suspended for child support arrears without a hearing, and to remove such suspensions
from drivers' abstracts.
Davis contends in the letter that the suspension of a driver's license for nonpayment of child
support-without a hearing, without a finding that the driver has the ability to pay, and without
counsel-violates the civil and constitutional rights of obligors.
It has been well established by our Supreme Court that the suspension of a driver's license is
a "consequence of magnitude" mandating a hearing and the appointment of counsel (without
http://bergendispatch.com/articles/35761701/Attorney-Puts-NJ-MVC-On-Notice-Over-Unlawful-License-Suspensions.aspx
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6/15/2015
Attorney Puts NJ MVC On Notice Over 'Unlawful' License Suspensions - Bergen Dispatch
cost to one who is indigent), Davis wrote.
The suspension of driver's licenses when an arrest warrant is issued for unpaid child support
began in 1998, when the NJ legislature enacted the New Jersey Child Support Improvement Act.
That law was passed to comply with the federal Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996, which requires states to increase compliance with child support
orders.
That law requires states to have the authority to withhold, suspend or restrict the use of driver's
licenses, professional and occupational licenses, and recreational licenses of persons owing
past-due support or failing to comply with court orders regarding child support.
Davis said in an interview that the federal law does not require New Jersey to automatically
revoke licenses in such circumstances. "Somehow, the state of New Jersey interpreted 'may' as
'shall.' They need to do it on a case-by-case basis," he said.
Davis calls the suspension of driver's licenses of child support obligors "absurdly selfdefeating," since it prevents them from going to work, looking for work or keeping any job that
requires driving, and from attending court hearings in their cases.
When a warrant is discharged, a $100 fee is charged by the MVC to reinstate the license, which
is a burden for the majority of obligors who have low incomes, he said. Suspensions also cause
an individual's car insurance rates to increase, Davis said.
In a report, MVC spokeswoman Elyse Coffey said MVC Chief Martinez has yet to receive Davis'
letter. But Coffey said the agency is merely complying with a legislative mandate when it
suspends licenses following issuance of an arrest warrant for nonpayment of child support.
"We're following the letter of the law. If he has a problem with that, he should probably go to the
legislature," Coffey said.
Davis represented indigent child support obligators who were the plaintiff in Pasqua v. Council.
In that case the New Jersey Supreme Court held that an indigent person may not be incarcerated
to coerce payment of child support arrears without holding a hearing to determine if the person
has the ability to pay the support and has willfully refused to do so.
The high court also ruled that parents brought before the court, facing incarceration, were
entitled to an attorney at that hearing and if they could not afford an attorney one must be
appointed or incarceration could not be used to coerce the parent to pay.
Despite the 2006 ruling by New Jersey’s highest court, judges in New Jersey’s lower courts
have routinely locked parents up without either a hearing or being provided an attorney. In 2014
the Administrative Office of the Courts issued new guidelines and required Family Court judges
to attend mandatory training after more than a decade of non-compliance by the courts.
In 2013, dozens of parents being held in the Bergen County Jail’s ‘work release’ program for
non-compliance with support orders filed appeals challenging the orders incarcerating them. The
state Supreme Court held that the county judges failed to comply with the law and violated those
parents right to due process. One father of two who spent 421 days in the Bergen County jail was
released by the high court in March.
Davis’ letter to the MVC follows:
January 26, 2015
Commissioner Raymond P. Martinez
New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission
P.O. Box 160
Trenton, NJ 08666
Dear Mr. Martinez:
In conjunction with the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, I am in the process of preparing
a civil rights suit regarding the issue of the automatic suspension of driver's licenses when a
support-related warrant is issued.
Currently, when an obligor fails to pay support (or make a required lump sum payment), an arrest
warrant is issued. The sole purpose of this warrant (pursuant to AOC Directive #02-14) "is to
bring the obligor before the court on an expedited basis." The system as it now operates issues a
warrant requiring a support obligor's expedited physical appearance and, at the same time (by
operation of law and without a hearing) suspends the person's ability to appear in court by
suspending his/her driver's license. The obligor also, of course, is then unable to drive to job
interviews, drive to work, or hold any job that requires operating a motor vehicle, thus making
the payment of support essentially impossible.
http://bergendispatch.com/articles/35761701/Attorney-Puts-NJ-MVC-On-Notice-Over-Unlawful-License-Suspensions.aspx
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6/15/2015
Attorney Puts NJ MVC On Notice Over 'Unlawful' License Suspensions - Bergen Dispatch
While self-defeating absurdity alone does not implicate civil rights, the suspension of a driver's
license without a hearing does. It has been well established by our Supreme Court that the
suspension of a driver's license is a "consequence of magnitude" mandating a hearing and the
appointment of counsel (without cost to one who is indigent). See e.g., Pasqua v. Council, 186
N.J. 127 (2006), Rodriguez v. Rosenblatt, 58 N.J. 281 (1971). The current system, where
licenses are suspended based solely on a failure to pay without a hearing, without a
contemporaneous finding of an ability to pay, and without counsel, is violative of the
Constitutional rights of obligors / drivers.
While I understand that the MVS is following a court order when suspending a driver's license as
a result of the issuance of a warrant, you took an oath upon entering office that you would uphold
the Constitution and, in any case, are a state actor. I submit that compliance with this oath (and
your duty as a state actor) requires that you cease and desist from illegally suspending driver's
licenses where there is no evidence before the Division that the driver's Constitutional rights
were adhered to. Additionally, I respectfully request that you refund all license reinstatement
charges that have been paid as a result of any unconstitutional license suspensions and
(retroactively) remove those suspensions from the drivers' abstracts.
If there was any lack of knowledge as to the unconstitutional nature of these suspensions prior to
your receipt of this letter, I respectfully submit that, at least from the date of your receipt of this
letter onward, any such unconstitutional actions will be knowing and wilful.
Second, I write pursuant to the Open Public Records Act to request a copy of all information
supplied that was used in the creation of the New Jersey Judiciary Report to the Legislature on
the Suspension of Licenses Due to Child Support Arrears - State Fiscal Year 2006, a copy of
which I attach for your reference. If the information cited therein has been compiled (whether
supplied to the Judiciary or not) since 2006, I request the more recent data instead of the 2006
data.
I thank you for attention to this matter. Please feel free to contact me at the above email address
or telephone number if there are any questions.
Respectfully,
David Perry Davis, Esq.
Cc: Hon. Glenn Grant, JAD
John Jay Hoffman, Esq., Acting Attorney General
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http://bergendispatch.com/articles/35761701/Attorney-Puts-NJ-MVC-On-Notice-Over-Unlawful-License-Suspensions.aspx
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