Fed Up With Excessive Traffic Fines? So Is The Supreme Court. Change May Be On The Horizon For New Yorkers.
Did you know that in the last two years nearly 600,000 New Yorkers had their driver’s license suspended due to unpaid fines? Did you read about the study in New Jersey which found that more than 40% of people who had their driver’s license suspended lost their job as a result?
Well, it looks like the Supreme Court may have just come to the rescue.
On Wednesday, in a rare unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the 8th Amendment’s ban on excessive fines applies to state and local governments; a decision which is likely to have a significant impact in New York, where excessive fines deprive people of their livelihood and are imposed with no consideration of a person’s ability to pay, and where courts use fines and fees to raise revenue for the state and for local governments.
I know where I stand on the issue. How about you? What’s the most expensive traffic fine you’ve ever received?