Areas of Practice:

Suspension of Driver's License (or Business License)

When the County believes that you are not in compliance with your child support obligation, they oftentimes will initiate a suspension of your driver's license.

Most cases involve driver's licenses; however, your business or occupational license can also be suspended. For instance, we have seen cases involving contractor's licenses, cosmetology licenses; and even the licenses of doctors and lawyers.

If the County is taking action to suspend your license, the DMV (or other licensing agency) should send you notice several months before the actual suspension takes effect.

Many people who receive notice fail to take any action because they believe that there is little or nothing that they can do. This is not true. Under California law, the Court is required to take your financial circumstances into account. If your case is properly presented to the Court, there is no reason that you should not be able to keep (or regain) your license.

If you receive notice that your license is being suspended it is IMPORTANT that you take action NOW !!!

It can sometimes take many weeks (and sometimes months) to get the suspension lifted. Even when the Court orders a lifting of the suspension, the DMV is short-handed and will usually not process the paperwork for weeks or even months. The longer you wait, the greater the chance that you will be facing additional costs and problems.

In one of our cases, the client worked as an independent truck driver, earning less than $27,000 per year. The DA suspended his driver's license, stating that he owed the County (not the Mom) in excess of $60,000 in back child support (much of which was interest). The DA would not even consider releasing his license unless he first came up with $6,000 - - just as a down-payment; plus the DA wanted more than $500/month toward back child support. (Because of his very moderate income, the client was unable to afford either portion.)

In presenting his case to the Court, we detailed the client's particular financial circumstances. This included the fact that the client was presently supporting two young children (a son, age 8, and a daughter, age 3). We also impressed upon the Court that without a driver's license, the client would obviously no longer be able to work as a truck driver; and this would then likely lead to his current family ending-up on some form of government assistance.

Upon the conclusion of the hearing, the Court ordered that the client's driver's license be returned to him. The license was released without the requirement of any down-payment. The client was only required to pay $250/month (instead of $500/month) toward the back child support.


If you are in danger of losing your license (or if you have already lost your license), you should take action immediately.

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