Bill Text: NJ A3276 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Eliminates driver's license suspension for failure to pay parking tickets; requires registration suspension for more than five parking tickets.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee [A3276 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A3276-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman BENJIE E. WIMBERLY
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
Assemblywoman SHAVONDA E. SUMTER
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
Assemblywoman VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblyman Coughlin
SYNOPSIS
Eliminates driver's license suspension for failure to pay parking tickets; requires registration suspension for more than five parking tickets.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning parking tickets, and supplementing and amending P.L.1985, c.14.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. (New Section) The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. Millions of New Jersey residents depend on their driver's license to travel to and from work, to take care of their families, and to perform a variety of tasks that they would consider necessary for their daily lives.
b. Driver's license suspension was originally conceived as a sanction used to punish bad drivers, as the link between driving behavior and sanctions is clear.
c. Yet, the vast majority of suspended driver's licenses throughout the State that are suspended do not result from habitual bad driving, but from a variety of compliance reasons like the failure to pay off the amount of accrued parking tickets.
d. Driver's license suspensions can lead to collateral and unintended consequences such as job loss, difficulty in finding employment, and reduced income, which are all needed to repay any accumulated debt.
e. Therefore, the provisions of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) are intended to end the financially devastating cycle of unpaid tickets and driver's license suspensions that place undue emotional, psychological, and financial stress on New Jersey residents.
2. Section 9 of P.L.1985, c.14 (C.39:4-139.10) is amended to read as follows:
9. a. If a person has failed to respond to a failure to appear notice or has failed to pay a parking judgment, the municipal court [may] shall give notice of that fact to the commission in a manner prescribed by the chief administrator. The commission shall maintain a record of each instance in which a person has been issued a failure to appear notice or has failed to pay a parking judgment for the purpose of complying with the suspension requirement pursuant to subsection b. of this section. If notice has been given under this section of a person's failure to respond to a failure to appear notice or to pay a parking judgment and if the fines and penalties are paid or if the case is dismissed or otherwise disposed of, the municipal court shall promptly give notice to that effect to the commission.
b. [The judge or the] At the direction of the commission [may], the judge shall suspend [the driver's license, or] the registration of the cited motor vehicle of an owner, lessee, or operator who has not answered or appeared in response to [a] five failure to appear [notice] notices or has not paid or otherwise satisfied more than five outstanding parking fines or penalties.
If the [license or] registration suspension is the result of the failure to pay outstanding parking fines or penalties, or respond to a failure to appear notice, the commission shall:
(1) delay the imposition of the [license or] registration suspension for at least 30 days after the date on which the commission [received] issued a notice of suspension [from] to the municipal court; and
(2) upon [receipt] issuance of a notice of suspension [from] to the municipal court, provide written notice advising the owner, lessee, or operator that the suspension shall take effect 30 days after the date of the commission's notice. The written notice issued by the commission shall provide the reason for suspension, identify the municipal court that issued the notice of suspension, and inform the owner, lessee, or operator that the suspension may be avoided by contacting the municipal court that issued the notice of suspension within the 30-day period to resolve the pending parking violation.
[If an owner, lessee or operator has been found guilty of a parking offense and has failed to pay or otherwise satisfy outstanding parking fines or penalties, the court shall provide notice and an opportunity to appear before a judge prior to suspending that person's driver's license or motor vehicle registration. In determining whether to suspend the person's driver's license or the motor vehicle registration, the judge and the commission shall take into consideration the circumstances of the offense, whether the suspension of the person's driver's license will result in extreme hardship and alternative means of transportation are not readily available, the area where the person resides, and whether or not the person has access to off-street parking.] In accordance with section 1 of P.L.1981, c.365 (C.39:4-203.1) and section 1 of P.L.2009, c.317 (C.2B:12-23.1), a court may permit alternatives to the payment of certain outstanding portions of parking fines and penalties based on a person's ability to pay, including allowing the payment of the fine in installments, conversion of the fine to community service, or revoking portions of the fine or penalty.
When a person whose [license or] registration has been suspended appears at court proceedings or otherwise resolves pending parking violations, or pays or otherwise satisfies all parking fines or penalties, the municipal court shall provide the person with a receipt of payment and shall give electronic notice to the commission that the person's obligations have been satisfied and the suspension ordered by the court shall not be imposed. If, prior to the effective date of the suspension by the commission, the person submits the receipt of payment to the commission or the commission receives the electronic notice stating that the person's obligations have been satisfied, the commission shall not suspend the person's [license or] registration. If the commission receives the receipt or electronic notice after the effective date of the suspension, the person shall seek the restoration of the [license or] registration through procedures adopted by the commission.
c. The commission shall keep a record of a registration suspension ordered by the court pursuant to subsection b. of this section.
(cf: P.L.2019, c.276, s.14)
3. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month next following enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill eliminates suspension of a person's driver's license as a penalty for failure to make required court appearances for outstanding parking tickets or failure to pay those tickets. But the bill does require suspension of a person's motor vehicle registration for failure to make more than five required court appearances related to outstanding parking tickets or for failure to pay more than five of those tickets.
