Deferred Prosecutions Stripped Of Benefits
By Diana Lundin | February 8, 2009A lot of attention has been given to the new legislation providing for ignition interlock licenses for those suffering a license suspension for a DUI. What people aren’t talking about so far is the cataclysmic changes to the deferred prosecution laws.
Previously, a deferred prosecution would have, in many cases, permitted a person to avoid a license suspension and the corresponding high-risk insurance requirement. It would also not have been disclosed on insurance records, thus protecting drivers from adverse consequences. In what seems by all accounts to be an oversight, the new legislation makes everyone granted a deferred prosecution subject to a mandatory ignition interlock license, which requires high-risk SR-22 insurance as a prerequisite. This means that driving and insurance records will include some reference to the offense.
The new law also requires an ignition interlock device be maintained for two years for all deferred prosecutions resulting from alcohol-related DUI’s, which is more substantial than previously required for first time offenders.
The result is that deferred prosecutions no longer protect drivers from collateral consequences as they once did. In effect, the legislature has gutted the deferred prosecution of many of its core benefits and has to be carefully evaluated in light of the heightened impact to drivers. The current legislative session may produce a remedy for this unintended and disparate result, but for now drivers beware !!
