Tennessee law allows for your drivers' license to be suspended for not paying your costs. That is right. Don't pay your court costs, lose your license.
For a theft charge. For a drug charge. For a speeding ticket. For a bad check charge. For a DUI. For anything where you owe court costs, whether it has anything to do with a driving offense or not. This law is a couple of years old, but has not been strongly enforced in Montgomery County. Until now...
Last week, after a couple months preparation, and a new software system, the Montgomery County Courts sent notices to the Department of Safety about cases with unpaid court costs that would allow for the revocation of drivers licenses. On just over 14,000 cases. Some people received one notice from the Department of Safety, while others with multiple cases received many.
This law dates back a couple of years, and the computers weren't quite set up for the mass reporting, so some cases trickled in and licenses were revoked. There are a few ways, according to the court clerks I have talked to, to get reinstated. One way is pay the costs. Another is to set up a payment plan. Contact the clerks office to discuss how to do that. The kicker is, if you don't follow the payment plan and miss one payment by a day, there goes your license again. And you can't set up another payment plan to get it reinstated again.
These court costs do not have to relate in any way with a motor vehicle related offense. So if, you owe court costs, take care of them, or you may get a notice from the Department of Safety telling you your license has been suspended too.