Bill Would Tie Driver’s License to Restitution

A state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would add some teeth to the law for restitution in driving-related cases.    Once court costs and state fines on a driver related offense have been paid, a driver’s license can’t be suspended according to state Representative Keith Gillespie.  He wants to allow the courts to be able to suspend a license if full restitution has not been made to the victim as ordered in traffic cases.

Gillespie says a lot of people fail to pay full restitution to the victim after paying their fines and court costs.  His bill would mandate that the driver pay the victim restitution in full or face the possibility of having their license suspended.

Gillespie says this would give the Clerk of Courts and the court system another tool to work with, to convince people who have broken the law to pay their responsibility back to society and to the victim.

Gillespie says the issue was brought to his attention by the York Court Clerk of Courts. He says Donald O’Shell felt a message needed to be sent to help with reestablishing full compensation to the victims.

House bill 1617 has been referred to the House Transportation Committee.