DDT Helps Cook County Driver Reinstate Driving Privileges

On a Sunday morning last year, our client was rear-ended by another driver in Countryside, Illinois. Although the accident was not her fault, this minor traffic issue nearly disrupted our client’s life plan.

Our client was driving with a Restricted Drivers permit (RDP). She had her RDP as a result of a DUI conviction which had occurred a few years earlier. The RDP had very strict restrictions on her driving privileges. Essentially, she was allowed to drive to and from work and her daughters’ school during specific times and days of the week.

Our client’s mother was visiting from out of town on the day of the accident. Our client’s RDP did not allow her to drive anywhere on a Sunday. This being the case, her mother drove our client and our client’s nieces to the store to buy groceries for the visit.

During the grocery trip, our client’s mother suffered a diabetic seizure. The grocery store was very close to our client’s home and she made the decision to drive home herself.

On the way home, she was rear ended by another driver. The police were called and, in the course of their investigation, discovered that our client was driving outside of the limits of her RDP. This resulted in our client facing a charge of Driving on A Revoked License, a Class A Misdemeanor at the Bridgeview Courthouse in Cook County, Illinois.

A criminal conviction carries many negative consequences. It can affect your ability to find work, housing or professional licensing. In our client’s case she was also at risk of losing her RDP and losing her ability to reinstate her license.

We accepted our client’s case and began our work. Our first approach is to evaluate whether litigation is appropriate in a particular case. In this case, litigation did not appear to be a valuable approach. With a Driving While Suspended/Revoked ticket, the state had a fairly simple case to prove.

When negotiating a criminal case, it is always important to remember the particular circumstances of each case. A great outcome for one client might be a terrible result for another.

For example, supervision is almost always a positive outcome. Supervision does not count as a conviction and many of the negative consequences from a criminal case will not apply to a supervision sentence.

However, in this case, supervision would not be to her benefit. In our client’s case, we wanted to try to preserve her ability to keep her RDP as well as reinstate her driver’s privileges at the appropriate time. A supervision sentence on the driving while revoked charge would almost certainly mean that she would not be able to continue driving which would impact her employment and her education.

Unfortunately, our initial approaches to State’s Attorney on this matter were not successful. By assembling all of the positive factors in our clients favor: her employment record, her good record of compliance with her RDP, and her evident hard work at resolving her DUI case, we were able to convince the State’s Attorney to amend our client’s charge to a violation which would not affect her ability to have her license reinstated. Our client was able to accept a promotion at her work and was able to reinstate her driving privileges.

In our experience, the attorneys of the Driver Defense Team have learned that a “cookie cutter” approach does not meet the needs of our clients. Every case deserves and requires individual attention. Our pledge to our clients is that we will provide that individual attention and work with you to get the best possible result for your particular situation.