Understandably, being ticketed with a Driving on a Suspended License in Illinois can be frightening and confusing for various reasons. For one, you are facing a Class A Misdemeanor offense. For two, you may not even have known that your driver's license was suspended. For three, you thought you had taken care of the issue causing the suspension. Regardless of why you are frightened or confused, at Shastri Law, we like to come up with a positive resolution regarding your ticket and get you your driver's license back and reinstated. As a driving on a suspended license attorney, we are well versed as to why your license is suspended and we will work to get your driver's license reinstated. Our goal is to make the process to get your driving privileges back as smooth as it can be along with obtaining the best outcome for your case.
Driving on suspended license in Illinois is a class a misdemeanor. That means it is punishable by up to one year in jail and fines of up to $2,500.00. Being ticketed with driving on a suspended license in Illinois is not a petty traffic ticket that should be taken lightly. When a police officer pulls you over, they check the status of your driving privileges in their database. Once they see that your driver's license is suspended, they will charge you accordingly. You can be looking at jail time and a criminal conviction. Additonally, a conviction will make it even more difficult to get your license reinstated. Therefore, it is important to contact a suspended license lawyer immediately to help represent you to avoid the penalties associated with this particular ticket. When you get ticketed for this offense, you can be booked and processed.
There is a difference between driving on a suspended license in Illinois and driving on a revoked license in Illinois. Suspended licenses have a timeframe for the suspension, and it is typically up to one year but can also be as little as three months. After the suspension, you can pay a reinstatement fee to get your license back as well as taking care of the issue that put your license on suspension. More on that below. To the contrary, a revoked license means your driving privileges is revoked by the Illinois Secretary of State and typically you will not get your license back. You typically will need to attend a formal hearing in front of a Secretary of State officer prior to getting your driving privileges back when dealing with a revoked license. It is more difficult to get your license back once it is revoked. Driving on a suspended or revoked license means a class a misdemeanor offense.
An important question that will need to be asked is why your driver's license is suspended to begin with. There are various reasons why the Secretary of State could have suspended your driving privileges. Below are some of the reasons:
Viewing a driver's abstract will help determine the exact reason for the suspension as the abstract will state the reason of the suspension. It is difficult to view a driver's abstract and having an experienced suspended license attorney view it will help you find the exact root for the suspension. Once it is determined why your driver's license is suspended, we will work with you to reinstate it.
Having your driver's reinstated will be important for a favorable outcome to your case. When your driver's license gets reinstated, the prosecuting attorney will know as they can pull the most recent up to date driver's abstract to ascertain if driving privileges are reinstated or if there is still a hold. With a reinstated driver's license, you will be able to present this good news to the prosecuting attorney. Thereafter, the prosecuting attorney can award you for your efforts to get reinstated by offering court supervision and potentially keeping the ticket off your record. If the prosecutor is not willing to offer court supervision, maybe the judge is. A request for court supervision to the judge by means of a blind plea can be helpful if you can prove to the judge your license is reinstated. You can admit the official, certified driver's record to the judge to show that your driving privileges are reinstated. This will be a strong case for a court supervision sentencing by the judge. Everyone will need to pay a reinstatement fee to the secretary of state before having their driver's license reinstated and the fee can vary between $70.00 to $500.00.
You may have a defense to the driving on a suspended license ticket such as the following:
If you are considering going to trial on a driving on a suspended license ticket, then you will need to weight all the pros and cons of doing so. Every case is different with a unique set of facts. However, as far as difficulty level of proving this ticket, this citation is probably one of the easier offenses for the prosecution to prove. The prosecution would need to just prove that your driver's license was suspended at the time you got pulled over. Not after, but at the time. They can do this by admitting a certified driver's record dating to the offense date showing that your driving privileges were suspended on the day you were pulled over. The prosecution will also need the officer to testify as to their observations of you driving, the probable cause for the stop, and other relevant facts. There is a chance that the prosecuting attorney may not get the certified copy at time of trial, or the officer does not show up for testimony. In that case, you would have a pretty good chance of having your case dismissed. However, it is a risk to rely on those circumstances occurring. Going to trial is always best decided after speaking to an experienced, suspended license attorney.
Contact our law firm so we can help you get your driver's license back and get you an outcome in Court that will not be detrimental to you. We understand how confusing and frightening driving on a suspended license in Illinois can be. But it does not need to be. We are here to help, and we are an affordable, flat fee law firm looking forward to representing you so you can get your driving freedom back. We understand how important it is to have the privilege of driving, and we want to see you enjoy that privilege.
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