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Bill

HB 980

Remove Barriers to Employment from Court Debt.

2025-2026 Session Introduced by Mary Belk and 10 co-sponsors

Eliminate driver's license suspensions solely for failure to pay or appear; require automatic reinstatement and fee waivers to reduce employment barriers from court debt.

Passed 1st Reading
0
WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · HB 980

Summary — HB 980: Remove Barriers to Employment from Court Debt (North Carolina, 2025)

Sponsor: Rep. Chesser (primary)
Title (short): Remove Barriers to Employment Due to Court Debt
Filed/Referred: Introduced April 2025; referred to Appropriations (if favorable, Finance, Rules)
Status (as provided): Passed 1st Reading (April 2025); committee referrals pending

Purpose
- Eliminate driver’s license suspensions and related collateral penalties that are imposed solely because a person failed to appear in court or failed to pay court fines, penalties, or costs for motor vehicle offenses. The bill aims to reduce employment and mobility barriers caused by court debt and related driver’s license suspensions, and to improve court appearance rates by adding reminder systems and data collection.

Key provisions
1. Repeal of statutory authority for suspension
- Repeals G.S. 20‑24.1 and G.S. 20‑24.2 (the provisions authorizing suspensions of drivers’ licenses for failure to pay fines/costs or failure to appear for motor vehicle offenses).

  1. Prohibition on revocations for nonpayment or nonappearance

    • Adds G.S. 20‑24.3: the DMV shall not revoke a driver’s license when the sole basis is failure to appear or failure to pay a fine, penalty, or court costs.

  2. Automatic reinstatement and fee waivers

    • Within three months of the bill’s effective date, DMV must terminate all license suspensions that were in effect solely under the repealed provisions.
    • DMV must waive all reinstatement fees tied to those suspensions.
    • If no other suspensions apply, reinstatement occurs without any action required by the licensee; DMV must notify affected persons by first‑class mail and post information online.

  3. Data collection and reporting

    • DMV must collect and publish a report (by Oct 1, 2025) on suspensions terminated under this act, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, zip code, length of suspension, charge, court, number of reinstatements, and amount of waived fees.
    • Administrative Office of the Courts must collect and publish (no later than March 31, 2025, and annually thereafter) disaggregated data on fines/fees imposed, collected, resolved by alternatives (e.g., community service), waived, nonappearance rates, and intentional evasion rates.

  4. Forgiveness of certain outstanding fines and fees

    • Adds a new subsection to G.S. 20‑28 providing that, as of October 1, 2025, unpaid fines and fees tied to a Driving While License Revoked (DWLR) prosecution are no longer enforceable or collectible if the underlying license suspension(s) resulted solely from G.S. 20‑24.1 (failure to pay) suspensions.

  5. Implementation supports (text reminders)

    • The bill’s title and summary indicate an appropriation to implement a text reminder system for court dates; the provided text does not show an appropriation amount.

Who is affected
- Directly: North Carolina drivers whose licenses were suspended or revoked solely for failure to appear or to pay fines/costs related to motor vehicle offenses; they will have suspensions terminated and reinstatements completed without action or fees in many cases.
- Courts, DMV, and the Administrative Office of the Courts: required to collect new data, publish reports, terminate suspensions, and provide notices.
- State finances: potential reduction in collections from fines/fees and reinstatement fees; administrative costs for data reporting and implementing text reminder systems (amounts unspecified in text).

Potential impacts & considerations
- Social/economic: Likely to reduce employment and transportation barriers for low‑income individuals and those with outstanding court debt; may reduce consequences that drive secondary offenses.
- Fiscal: The bill may reduce revenue from fine collection and reinstatement fees and impose administrative costs for data collection and reminder systems; net fiscal impact is not specified.
- Accountability/monitoring: The data collection and reporting requirements aim to monitor effects by demographic groups and to inform future policy.

Procedural/timeline notes
- Introduced/Filed April 2025; passed first reading; referred to Appropriations (with possible referral to Finance and Rules) for further consideration.
- Key deadlines in the bill text: DMV report by Oct 1, 2025; AOC data collection report due March 31, 2025 (and annually); forgiveness of specified fines effective Oct 1, 2025; DMV termination of suspensions required within three months of the section’s effective date.

(If you want, I can produce a short one‑page explainer for people whose licenses will be reinstated, or estimate likely fiscal impacts using state collection data if you provide revenue figures.)

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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