I think most people have been in this situation in their life. You get a ticket for speeding or some other moving violation, but you don't have the money to pay. In the past, that would mean you'd either have to risk having your license suspended or just not paying the ticket and riding the bus until you had enough money to pay.

Last week Governor Cuomo signed the Driver’s License Suspension Reform Act that changes the circumstances that can cause your license to be suspended. No longer will your license be suspended just because you can't afford to pay for your ticket.

Under the new law, drivers fined for traffic violations will be allowed to pay monthly installments of no more than 2% of their net monthly income or $10 per month, whichever is greater. There’s no automatic waiving of fees. But the new law will allow judges to reduce or waive the mandatory surcharges and fees.

Governor Cuomo said that this was long overdue and it wasn't fair to penalize New York drivers that couldn't pay their debt by taking away their ability to drive to and from work. Also, he mentioned that the threat of a suspended license if people don't pay their tickets had been proven to be pretty inefficient.

This seems like a fair way to do it. Hopefully, it means fewer people driving on suspended licenses and more people being able to pay their fines without putting an undue financial strain on people. However, this isn't the end of license suspensions. If you fail to appear in court because of a traffic violation you will still lose your license.

The new law will take effect on March 31st.

 

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