All I want for Christmas is a valid driver’s license

Thanks to Santa aka the Louisiana legislative, your Christmas wish may be fulfilled. A major obstacle for Louisiana citizens trying to reinstate their suspended driver’s licenses have been Louisiana’s Office of Motor Vehicles fees (OMV). Louisiana dmv fees accrue due to missed traffic ticket court dates, unpaid speeding tickets, insurance cancellations, or etc. Dmv fees can range for $60 to $525 for each offense. The fees can add up quickly thus I have seen dollar amounts as high as $3k.

According to The Advocate through the newly created Office of Debt Recovery, the state is attempting to recover lapsed insurance fees dating back 30 years. Therefore, drivers who haven’t lived in Louisiana in 20 years are finding themselves owing the state of Louisiana tremendous amounts of money. If you owe penalties and fines to OMV, the state will put a flag on your driving record. This flag will prevent you from being to able to review your driver’s license or vehicle registration even if you don’t have a Louisiana driver’s license.

The Louisiana legislative has authorized the OMV to offer eligible drivers the ability to enter into installment agreements to pay off OMV fines monthly and have their driving privileges reinstated during the repayment. To be quality for an installment agreement, all requirements for a driver’s license other than the payment of outstanding fees must be met. The first payment for any installment agreement is due at the time the agreement is signed. The length of the agreement and amount of monthly payments will be based on the total amount owed. The installment agreements require automatic monthly payments either by credit/debit card or bank draft. To quality for a plan, you owe at least $250. As I discussed in a previous blog post, cash will not be accepted.

Per Louisiana legislative, the installment agreement will be consist of the following:

$250 6 equal monthly payments
$251 – $750 12 equal monthly payments
$751 – $1500 24 equal monthly payments
$1501 – $2500 36 equal monthly payments
$2501 – $4999 48 equal monthly payments
$5000 and up 60 equal monthly payments*

*The commissioner of the Office of Motor Vehicles is authorized to grant longer payment terms for persons owing $5000 or more based on proof of income indicating financial limitations to the ability to pay within sixty months.