SAN FRANCISCO – A coalition of legal aid and civil rights organizations along with Pillsbury sued the Department of Motor Vehicles for illegally suspending the driver's licenses of low-income Californians. After months of litigation, the court rejected the defendant's attempt to dismiss the case. The court ruled that plaintiffs can continue challenging the DMV's practice of suspending the driver's licenses of people too poor to pay their tickets.

The suit was brought on behalf of drivers who have had their licenses suspended in violation of their statutory, due process, and equal protection rights. Each plaintiff was unable to pay the exorbitant fines associated with routine traffic tickets, and had his or her license suspended without an assessment of their ability to pay. This ongoing practice is common in California traffic courts. By the DMV's own recent estimate, approximately 600,000 Californians have suspended driver's licenses for failure to pay or failure to appear.

"The DMV is illegally suspending licenses where the drivers are low-income and can't afford to pay their traffic tickets," said Rebecca Miller, Staff Attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid. "These suspensions violate the fundamental rule against punishing poverty and force people to choose between paying rent or keeping their driver's license. Today's decision means these drivers will finally get their day in court."

Thomas Loran III, a Pillsbury litigation partner who represented the plaintiffs pro bono along with former colleagues Andrew Bluth and Darcy Muilenberg, added: “This ruling clears the way for fact-based discovery and the adjudication of the critical claim involved in this case on the merits: that the DMV is assisting in the unlawful criminalization of Californians who are financially unable to pay their traffic fines.”

On October 25, 2016, plaintiffs sued the DMV in Alameda County Superior Court after the department failed to respond to a demand letter sent on August 1, 2016. Along with Pillsbury, the plaintiffs are represented by: Bay Area Legal Aid, The ACLU of Northern California, Clare Pastore of the USC Gould School of Law, The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR), the Western Center on Law & Poverty, the East Bay Community Law Center and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.