(KTXL) — The Department of Motor Vehicles officially reported that it cleared more than 550,000 driver’s license suspensions back in December, according to one of the groups representing several Californians behind a 2016 lawsuit.
The release by the Western Center on Law & Poverty said the court sided with their plaintiffs last year.
“In June 2020, the Court of Appeal agreed with the plaintiffs that state law only allows a license to be suspended for a failure to appear in court when the traffic court notifies the DMV that the failure to appear was willful,” WCLP wrote.
By December, 554,997 suspensions were cleared, all of which “did not include the required notification of a willful failure to appear.”
According to court documents, the DMV sent those drivers a notification in the mail, and those who could reinstate their license were able to without having to pay a fee.
WCLP said the DMV will now wait until it is notified by the court of a willful failure to appear before issuing driver’s license suspensions.
The DMV also paid $812,500 in attorneys’ fees.