Those of you who owe fees and unpaid fines to the Office of Motor Vehicles, the state is offering some much-needed relief.
The OMV has recalled fees previously referred to the Office of Debt Recovery and has wiped out all late fees and interest.
“It’s back down to what they originally owed with the original caps,” says OMV Commissioner Dan Casey.
Casey says the goal is to get driver’s licenses reinstated once and for all.
“We’ve got too many people that are in a position that can’t get their drivers’ licenses back. The fines have gotten out of control, and we’ve got to rewrite this program.”
Casey says some of the reasons that some fees went to the ODR may have been beyond the driver’s control, and that sent the amount owed spiraling out of control, making the matter worse.
“They were in a payment plan,” Casey noted. “They might have had VIN cancellations when they were in a payment. They’ve gotten in a bad position, and they couldn’t make the payment, and it was automatically 30 days later. So it’s over to ODR, and the fine may have went from $1,000 to $4,000.”
Casey says the state wants to help in any way it can.
“If they’re an indigent person and they can’t make these payments, we can deal with them on an individual basis,” Casey says.
The OMV says more than 350,000 Louisiana drivers will benefit from this change, and they need to contact the OMV immediately to pay the original fine in its entirety or to work out a payment plan.
They can visit www.expresslane.org/DLstatus to check the status of their drivers’ licenses.
If it shows that they owe fees, they should visit www.expresslane.org/ContactUs, select “Installment Agreement or Reinstatement Return Call” as the type of inquiry, and submit all the required information.
All unresolved fees more than 180 days past due will be referred back to the ODR.
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