The Southern Legal Counsel and ACLU of Florida have filed a petition through Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal challenging the Sarasota Clerk of Court’s legal authority to suspend driver’s licenses over unpaid fines for non-criminal violations.
The groups are seeking a writ of quo warranto directing Sarasota Clerk of Court Karen Rushing to demonstrate her authority to suspend licenses for non-criminal fines. The form of legal action used to resolve a dispute over whether a specific person has the legal right to hold the public office that they hold.
“We are asking the court to … prohibit the Sarasota Clerk of Court from suspending driver’s licenses for non-payment of court costs, fines, and fees associated with ordinance violations,” said Chelsea Dunn, an attorney with Southern Legal Counsel, a nonprofit law firm that works with the ACLU. “In fact, the Florida Supreme Court has held that ordinance violations are not crimes as defined by state statute, and the Clerk has been informed in writing by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles that such suspensions are unauthorized by law.”
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The petition was filed on the behalf of Sarasota resident Stacy Ostolaza, a U.S Army veteran whose license was suspended after he failed to pay $293 for court costs associated with a citation for an open container offense, which is considered noncriminal.
Ostolaza is just one of 1,883 people whose license has been improperly suspended in Sarasota County for noncriminal municipal or county ordinance violations between July 2006 and March 2021, according to the Southern Legal Counsel and ACLU.
Ostolaza pled no contest to the charge and was ordered to pay a $293 fine, which he has not. The Clerk notified the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to suspend his license.
The ACLU believes it is counterintuitive to deny citizens from driving because they don’t have the money to pay fines and court costs.
In a statement, Rushing argued that the clerk does not have the authority to determine whose license is suspended or not.
“Florida law authorizes the clerk to send notice to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles when a driver does not pay their financial obligations for a criminal offense,” Rushing said. “Florida law also supports that local ordinances that are punishable by jail time are criminal in nature. The offense in question was for a violation of a local ordinance that is punishable by jail time and is considered criminal in nature. The clerk of court does not have the authority to determine whose license should be suspended. Therefore, in this instance, the clerk met its obligation in sending (an) appropriate notice to the DHSMV of this individual’s failure to pay their financial obligation.”
Other Florida counties have worked towards the issue. The Marion County Clerk of Court and the DHSMV lifted nearly 1,600 driver’s license suspensions as a result of unpaid costs and fines over ordinance violations since 2019 following a similar case involving a homeless man who had been fined court costs and had his driver’s license suspended for “open lodging.”
Cummings challenged the suspension of his driver’s license contending that “a municipal ordinance violation is not a ‘crime’ under Florida law, and financial obligations assessed for municipal ordinance violations are not ‘financial obligations for [a] criminal offense.’”
After hearing his argument, the court agreed that “suspension of Cummings’s driver’s license for failure to pay financial obligations for municipal ordinance violations was in error, not authorized by Florida law.”
Since then, 25 counties lifted suspensions after the Marion County ruling, according to the ACLU and Southern Legal Counsel. The DHSMV also sent letters to the clerks of court with license suspensions regarding ordinance violation cases.
Rushing received DHSMV’s letter and agreed to lift 21 of the 1,786 active driver’s license suspensions in municipal or county ordinance cases.
“The impact of this practice falls mostly on those who are unable to pay, such as our client, who is a veteran but currently unemployed while serving as the primary caregiver for his father, who is battling cancer,” said Jacqueline Azis, staff attorney at the ACLU of Florida. “Those who can’t immediately pay their fines and fees are subject to significant additional penalties, such as collection fees, interest, and payment plan set-up fees, among other fees.”
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