Why am I Charged With Driving on a Suspended, Even Though I Never had a License?
Driving on suspended is a funny charge in Virginia. The charge is that you were driving after your license or privilege to drive had been suspended.
The typical case that I see is when someone has not ever had a license and they drive and they get a ticket. They forget to pay the ticket, so that payment becomes late. At that point, when your payment has become late, DMV suspends your license automatically. Even though you’ve never had a license, your privilege to drive or your privilege to get a license is now suspended in Virginia.
At that point, if you get stopped again by an officer, instead of simply being charged with not having a valid license or maybe just given a warning about getting a license, the officer will mostly likely charge you with driving on a suspended license. It’s a class 1 misdemeanor.
The real kicker for driving on a suspended license is that if you’re found guilty, they suspend your license for additional time. Even if you get a license before your court date, you’re going to be facing additional license suspension in Virginia. It’s quite a mess, and it causes quite a few problems for people. This is one reason why I recommend to fix your license BEFORE going to court. That can dramatically decrease the amount of time your license will be suspended.
Photo by: ro_buk [I’m not there]
