[bmelton]

I've had my driver's license suspended on more than one occasion, and either couldn't pay the fines or forgot about it until I got the letter saying that my license had been suspended.

For what it's worth, I would recommend that everybody have their license suspended at one point or another. I never really knew how to drive safely before I had to drive knowing that any mistake I made might send me to jail.

I can't speak for the man in question, but if he's anything like me, 1) his suspended license may not speak at all as a reflection of his driving ability, and 2) if he was aware of the suspension, would likely have been on his best behavior.

[benatkin]

> I never really knew how to drive safely before I had to drive knowing that any mistake I made might send me to jail.

Huh? You drove after you knew you had a suspended license? You had to drive?

If I understand what it means to not have a license, the thing to do in that situation is to have someone else drive your car to a long-term parking spot if it isn't in one already, and just leave it there until you have it reinstated.

[bmelton]

At the risk of submitting myself to further judgment, and going far offtopic, yes, I did. I had gotten into an accident, wherein I was wrongly ticketed for hitting another car who had turned in front of me despite my right of way. I went to court and spoke my piece, and the judge overturned my ticket, leaving my only liable for court costs (I think it was $50).

At the time, I was working a part time, $7 an hour night-shift job across town, and had just had to expend the paltry savings I had accrued to replace the aforementioned car that I wrecked. In short, I couldn't afford to pay the $50 fine when it was due, and couldn't afford to miss work.

Before I could pay the $50, somebody had broken the window of my new car, broken in, and stolen all my books for class (which were extremely expensive to replace, along with the window. Before I got around to paying the court, they had suspended my driving privileges. Cost to reinstate was $236.74 (I remember it distinctly, even 16 years later as being so reasonable, yet so painfully high at the same time.)

It took me a few months to save that money up, and in the interim, I made a somewhat ill-advised judgement call. It wasn't as though my license had been suspended for any reasons to do with my driving ability, and I needed the job. It was at night, so mass transit wasn't an option, and at the time, none of my friends worked nights, so getting rides wasn't really an option either. My options, as I saw them, was to drive illegally and hope to not get caught, or to relinquish the job I had and dig further into certain financial ruin. I chose the former.

[benatkin]

Ah. It sounds a lot better to me now that I've heard more of the story. They really shouldn't have used their ability to cancel your license to collect that $50.

[michaelgrafl]

Thanks for telling this story and yes, I would have done the same.