Dear gel1122-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. I was awaiting a clarification but since I’ve been in law
enforcement for more than 20 years I think I can go ahead and answer
based on what I believe you are alluding to:
If you are dead set upon getting another license in a different state,
be prepared. Many problems can, and may arise that could eventually
cause you more trouble than you originally bargained for:
Let’s say have a suspended license in Arizona and you do manage to get
a new license in Nevada. Even though you surrender your Arizona
license to Nevada at the time you obtain your Nevada license, you will
still be considered a violator should you be caught driving back home
in Arizona – even if you have a valid Nevada license. You can’t have
two of them and claim to be a Nevada driver only. This rule applies in
most states. Why? Because you are still a resident of Arizona until
you actually pack up and move to Nevada and live there for more than
30 consecutive days and for the majority of the year thereafter.
Also, there is the problem of state compact agreements. “Compacts” are
agreements between states to recognize and enforce the law of the
other member states. That is to say that if you have a suspended,
restricted or revoked license in one state and get stopped while
driving in another state with which your state has a compact
agreement, you can be ticketed, and in some cases, jailed, even if you
present a valid license from another state. Your car may be towed (you
will have to pay for that) and any fees, fines or courts costs you
have to pay will be forwarded to your home state. In some instances,
you may be physically extradited to your home state to stand trial.
Depending on how far away you are at the time, this may involve
sitting in jail for a few days until an officer from your home state
can get around to coming to pick you up. Sometimes, extradition fees
also apply, in which case you can be ordered to reimburse the state so
much per mile in addition to your other fees just for the patrol car
ride home.
The best way to get a “clean drivers license” is to address the
problems on the one that you have. Let’s face it, from the sound of
your question it appears that if you had your choice, you’d probably
just make your license problems vanish and be quite satisfied with the
license you have, right? You can do that.
First, don’t do anything else that would be considered more
detrimental to your driving record. If you are currently suspended or
restricted in any way, follow the rules and let your sentence run out.
If you’ve just accumulated a load of points, be careful, and don’t do
anything to make them go up. (i.e., more tickets, getting arrested,
etc). In most states you can get up to 3 points taken off your record
for every year of un-ticketed driving. By doing this you can remove
about 3 accumulated points before this time next year as long as you
keep your record clean from here on out. (-3 right there)
Next, if you still have a court date pending, ask the District
Attorney, Prosecuting Attorney, your attorney or the Judge if you can
plead “no contest” in exchange for a suspended sentence and a trip to
a reputable Defensive Driving Course (sometimes called Driver
Improvement Course). This shows the court that you have remorse and
you are interested in making things right again. They may very well be
happy to oblige. Often this move allows the courts to “nol pros”, “set
aside” or drop the whole matter after you have fulfilled your end of
the obligation. This dropping of charges may get about 3 points off
your record. (Now you are down about 6 points).
Then, contact your local Driver’s Control, State Police or DMV and see
if there are any Defensive Driving Courses available. If your area
doesn’t have one of these classes, try the Yellow Pages for a driving
school in the private sector that does. Book a seat in the first one
that comes open. These classes usually last from one to 5 days. They
are long and tedious but they are fundamental in terms of curriculum.
Endure it…this is a “must” to get you started in the right direction.
In the end, you can actually shave a few points off your driving
record, both with the state and with your insurance company, just by
showing them your certificate of completion when you have your license
reinstated or renewed. (You may now be down as much as 9
points…Looking good?)
Finally, if possible, check with your attorney and see if you can get
any of the violations “expunged” from your record. If the violations
date back some time and you have kept a clean slate, sometimes you can
convince a Judge to sign an order of expungement and have the record
wiped clean. A word of warning though, any sane Judge interested in
keeping his job will only grant you an expungement one time. If you
mess up after that, well, that’s it. You should also be aware that you
may have to pay a number of filing fees, lawyer’s fees and court costs
in order to make this happen but again, your willingness make this
kind of investment also shows the Judge how serious you are about
rehabilitating your license and regaining your driving privileges.
(The effects of expungment vary from state to state). Often it helps
to have a specific reason for the request such as joining the
military, applying for a job that requires a clean record, enrolling
in college to study for a career that is traditionally sensitive to
criminal records or background checks, etc. Even if you cannot get an
expungement, the other methods should have gotten you down
considerably and only time can cure the rest. If successful though,
this can bring you down to 0 points on your driving record overnight!
– VIOLA, clean slate! (And you didn’t have to move one mile from home
to do it).
I hope you find that that my research exceeds your expectations. If
you have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. I wish you luck.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
“Nonresident Violator Compact (NRVC)”
http://www.aamva.org/drivers/drv_compactsNRVC.asp
“Driver License Compact (DLC)”
http://www.aamva.org/drivers/drv_compactsDLC.asp
“Compact Member Status”
http://www.aamva.org/Documents/drvCompactsMemberStatus.PDF
“Defensive Driving Course” (example #1)
http://www.safetypa.org/defensiv.htm
“Defensive Driving Course” (example #2)
http://www.safetycouncilcny.org/PAGES/defensive_driving_schedule.htm
“The Department of the Public Defender, Expungement Clerk, San Diego,
CA”
(This example provides some relatively universal information about
expungements)
http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/cnty/cntydepts/safety/defender/expungement.html
“How do I get points removed from my driver's license?”
http://lawdudes.com/MunicipalCourt/pointreduction.htm
SEARCH STRATEGY:
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
Driving expungment
License expunge
Interstate driving compact
State compact agreements
Defensive driving course
Driving points
Driving clean slate |
