By Kitty J. Lin, Attorney at Law<\/p>\n
There may be many reasons why the Department of Motor Vehicles (\u201cDMV\u201d) may suspend your driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 If your license was suspended due to debt, you may be able to file for bankruptcy to eliminate the debt and have the DMV release your license.\u00a0 One of the most common examples of when the DMV may suspend your license is if you were in a car accident and you did not have insurance, or you were under-insured.\u00a0 If you were at fault and you do not have the funds to pay the other party\u2019s personal injuries or property claims, your license may be suspended until you are able to pay the funds in full.<\/p>\n
Having your license suspended may put you in a financial bind, especially if you commute long distances for work and there is no convenient public transportation.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have your license, you cannot get to work.\u00a0 If you cannot get to work, you won\u2019t have the funds to repay your debt and may even end up owing more in credit card debt.\u00a0 There are also those people that rely on having a driver\u2019s license for their work, like delivery people or repairmen.\u00a0 For these people, having a driver\u2019s license is crucial.<\/p>\n
So, how can you get your driver\u2019s license suspension released?\u00a0 You can either pay the judgment\/debt in full, or, if you don\u2019t have the funds, you can file for bankruptcy.\u00a0 A Chapter 7 bankruptcy, if you qualify, will help you wipe out your dischargeable debt, including any civil judgments or monetary damages for car accidents.\u00a0 Once you are able to show the DMV that your debts are included in your bankruptcy filing, the DMV would release your driver\u2019s license.\u00a0 A Chapter 13 bankruptcy would also help you get your driver\u2019s license re-instated as well.\u00a0 Chapter 13 bankruptcies are especially helpful if you have non-dischargeable debt.<\/p>\n
Non-Dischargeable debt<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n There are certain debts that are not dischargeable in bankruptcy, and therefore the DMV will not release the suspension on your driver\u2019s license until the money judgment is satisfied.\u00a0 If you were in an accident while driving under the influence (\u201cDUI\u201d), any monetary judgment for personal injuries or personal property claims awarded to the other party is not dischargeable in a bankruptcy case.\u00a0 This means that you would have to pay the debt in full – bankruptcy will not be able to help you get rid of that debt.\u00a0 Additionally, any punitive damages or restitution ordered by the court related to the DUI will not be dischargeable.<\/p>\n Even if it was not a DUI, if the debt was incurred due to a willful or malicious injury to a person or property, that debt is also non-dischargeable.\u00a0 Thus, if you intentionally use your car to run into your noisy neighbor\u2019s fence or tree, the resulting damages are not dischargeable in bankruptcy.<\/p>\n Other non-dischargeable debt include arrears in alimony or child support payments, as well as parking tickets or other debts owed to a governmental unit for fines or penalties.\u00a0 Since these debts are non-dischargeable, it means you need to pay off these debts before your driver\u2019s license can be released.<\/p>\n How to get your driver\u2019s license released for non-dischargeable debt<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n So if you have non-dischargeable debt and you need your driver\u2019s license released, one way you can do so is if you file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.\u00a0 In a Chapter 13, you will be able to provide a payment plan to pay off the non-dischargeable debt in a period of three to five years.\u00a0 As long as you can show that you are making payments on your Chapter 13 plan, the DMV will be able to release your license.\u00a0 However, if your case is dismissed for any reason, including non-payment, then the DMV has the power to re-suspend your license again because the debt has not been paid.<\/p>\n If you have any questions regarding how you can get your driver\u2019s license released, contact a San Jose bankruptcy lawyer<\/a> or Fremont bankruptcy lawyer<\/a> today for a free consultation.\u00a0 Call 1-877-9NEW-LIFE to get that fresh start you deserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There may be many reasons why the Department of Motor Vehicles (\u201cDMV\u201d) may suspend your driver\u2019s license. If your license was suspended due to debt, you may be able to file for bankruptcy to eliminate the debt and have the DMV release your license. One of the most common examples of when the DMV may suspend your license is if you were in a car accident and you did not have insurance, or you were under-insured. If you were at fault and you do not have the funds to pay the other party\u2019s personal injuries or property claims, your license may be suspended until you are able to pay the funds in full.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[201],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":536,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions\/536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}