Long story short: my girlfriend’s brother got into a bit of trouble with the law a while back by getting pulled over while he was going 100mph on the highway while also happening to be under the influence of marijuana, and also possessing marijuana (just enough apparently for it to be considered intent to distribute or whatever). Now, altogether I believe he was charged with 6 offenses, at least one of which was the most severe misdemeanor class (or perhaps a felony?).
This is the guy’s first offense (a mighty one at that) they also revoked his driver’s license. Now, he happens to be in college currently and since it’s a 30 minute drive to and from his college, coupled with the fact that there’s no bus service of any kind in his suburban area, he’s pretty much going to be screwed out of going to college for at least the fall semester (they said he might get it back in Feb).
My question is this: aren’t there usually exceptions when a license is revoked allowing the person to travel to and from school/work? It seems kind of ridiculous that they can take away his ability to go to school for an entire semester on a first charge (even if it’s several offenses :)). Is it just completely up to the judge or is there perhaps some law requiring offenders to be allowed to transport themselves to and from work? FYI he could have got any one of six judges to hear the case and he just so happened to get the one that’s know for being a hardass on marijuana offenses… The real, example-setting type.
There are such things as “Cinderella Licenses” in some states that allow people with driving convictions to get to and from work or school. However, I have no idea if Indiana has them. I don’t believe that Massachusetts does at all. People from other parts of the world probably can’t relate but losing your drivers license here can be truly devasting and life-altering meaning that you would lose essentially everything if you follow the law but life circumstances absolutley depend on your ability to drive.
I believe there are “hardship liscenses” that allow you to drive, but only to and from work, and probably school.
I never got one. I got a DUI when I was in college. The next semester I moved back into a dorm room on campus and worked a campus job. It kinda sucked after the freedom of living in an an apartment, but you’ve gotta deal.
ETA: I was in Kentucky. My fraternity brother that told me about the hardship license was from Ohio. I don’t know whether he was in Ohio or KY when he got his DUI and hardship licesnse. I never got a lawyer, either, so it looks like I can’t help much.
Yeah they have an attorney and they’re talking with him about it… I’m just wondering because my girlfriend (his sister) is going to go to the same college as him this upcoming semester (which also happens to be my college too) and I think they’re kind of leaning towards her taking him to school everyday, which I think is kind of ridiculous because there’s just no way they can get their schedules similar enough to prevent one of them from having to stay there just waiting for hours on end, or massively inconveniencing each other.
Trust me, I know it’s all his fault… That’s what I’m telling my GF. It’s his responsibility and his fault and he just can’t rely on you to take him to school everyday, especially when you’re going to have completely different schedules! Hell, we’re still trying to figure out how he was going 100mph on the freeway while under the influence of marijuana! Shouldn’t he have been going much much slower? On the other hand he does have ADD so maybe those two things canceled each other out…
We used to call them a “Red License” around here (Colorado) - had a route that you were allowed to drive and the hours you could drive it, and they were pretty stingy with the things. I believe they were mostly for single income type people with a family and I rarely heard of them being issued to students (except students with full time jobs that were helping single-mom)
That’s 20 years out of date, and the wrong state, but I’ve already typed it so I’m going to post it anyway!
Depends. I carpooled/bussed most of my way through 5 years of college. I was in an engineering program so there was always homework, studying, and sleeping to be done during the waiting times. I also worked part time for 4 of those years, so there was that to factor in as well. It was strictly a commuter campus though (no dorms) so we may have had more study lounges and places to grab sleep than a typical campus.
Parking, gas, maintenance, and the inconvenience are not free, so he needs to be paying for most of the actual expense of this arraignment.
Ahh I do believe it was “hardship license” I was looking for… This seems promising: Kaivo.com (first search result for “indiana hardship license”. Hopefully it’ll all work out. Thanks everyone!
My now-husband got his license suspended as a teenager and was allowed to drive to work and back, but had a curfew. I don’t think school was allowed as I remember having to drive him to class. This was for multiple speeding tickets, just an accumulation of points though, not a drug charge or felony so I think it does depend on the charges and the judge. I can’t remember if he was over 18 at the time either.
So I guess I can confirm that it does happen (in Michigan anyway), but I could be misremembering and maybe he just had a “restricted” license and not a “suspended” one. No harm in trying for one.
Now that I think about it more, I just heard of a friend getting his license suspended for DUI and I don’t think he was allowed to drive at all, even to work. He had to get rides.
Bicycle?
A 30 minute drive will be a long ride, but for sure doable. Particularly if that 30 minute ride is on surface streets.
I also agree that he needs to talk to the person responsible for this mess. Tomorrow when he goes to shave, the person responsible will be directly in front of him.
IC 35-48-4-15
Driver’s license and motor vehicle registration; suspension
Sec. 15. (a) If a person is convicted of an offense under section 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, or 11 of this chapter, or conspiracy to commit an offense under section 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, or 11 of this chapter, and the court finds that a motor vehicle was used in the commission of the offense, the court shall, in addition to any other order the court enters, order that the person’s:
(1) operator’s license be suspended;
(2) existing motor vehicle registrations be suspended; and
(3) ability to register motor vehicles be suspended;
by the bureau of motor vehicles for a period specified by the court of at least six (6) months but not more than two (2) years.
(Your friend was convicted under section 11.)
The judge had no discretion here, the law says that he shall suspend the license of someone who is driving a car while committing this offense. The luck of the draw on the judge has nothing to do with it. An interesting side note- the law used to be that anybody convicted of possession of marijuana got their license suspended regardless of whether a vehicle was involved or not. Thankfully that law was changed.
Also, people suspended under this provision are almost never granted a hardship license. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but I’ve never seen it in ten years as a probation officer in Indiana.
Bicycle might not be a terrible idea.
Also, if that 30 minutes is 30 minutes with a bunch of stoplights, it might not take THAT MUCH longer on a bicycle.
I used to ride a bicycle around Chapel Hill, NC. It was a fairly congested town at the time (worse now), and I could essentially cross town going east-west in 20 minutes or so, which at the time would have taken 15 minutes in my car. The guy in the car never got a decent head of steam up, and as soon as you’d get the car up to the speed limit you’d hit a stop light.
I would not suggest doing anything illegal. An observation: I have known many people who have had their DL suspended, yet still drove to work/school/shopping. The trick, it seems, is to do it in a way that does not lead to being pulled over.
Heh.
If I had as many raps coming down the pike as this unwise, unfortunate individual, I would not get anywhere NEAR the driver’s seat of a car.
I wouldn’t ride with anyone who was drunk or high, and I wouldn’t ride in any car that was likely to have ANY contraband anywere in it.
I’ve had friends who have had this happen and if your not at least 21 and you want to be able to still drive to school and work they basically tell you to go fuck yourself.
On the other hand he does have ADD so maybe those two things canceled each other out…