Hi, this is Bradley Phillips with Phillips Law. I am a criminal defense attorney and personal injury attorney here in New Orleans, and today I’m going to talk to you about one of the most common questions I’ve gotten over the last 10 years from prospective clients—people who need a little bit of help: “I need help getting my license back.” I’ll answer the phone, and the first thing out of their mouth is, “Mr. Phillips, I need help getting my license back.” It’s a very common issue that happens to a lot of people. There are numerous ways your license can get suspended—missed traffic tickets, insurance lapses, failing to turn in a license plate—any number of things can lead to a suspension. Today, I’m going to focus on traffic tickets and missing court dates, things like that, that can leave you needing to have your license reinstated.
One of the first things I tell clients when they call—or rather, the first thing I ask—is, “Have you talked to the DMV?” Often, people know they have outstanding tickets that they never did anything about. They’ll call the courthouse, the courthouse will give them the tickets, we take care of them, but then there’s another problem. You get to the DMV and they say, “Oh, well, you missed this ticket here or that ticket there, so we’re not going to do anything for you.” To save people money, I like to tell them to talk to the DMV first. Let’s get all the information we can from them so we can take care of everything in one shot and save you money.
So, how do you get the information from the DMV? There’s a hard way and an easy way. The hard way is going to the DMV in person or trying to get someone from the DMV on the phone—good luck with that. If you have any luck, give me a call and let me know because I need that information too. The easier way is to go to the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles website and request your driver’s license status. You’ll start by going to their website. Under “Know Before You Go,” you’ll see “Driver’s License Status Check.” Click on that, whether you’re on your phone or computer. It’ll take you to a disclaimer page; click continue and certify that you agree to the terms.
You’ll need two things: your driver’s license number and the last four of your Social Security. Enter those, check the “I’m not a robot” box, and go through their verification steps. Once done, it will show you your driver’s license status. Ideally, it will say you have no outstanding issues with the Office of Motor Vehicles, which is exactly what we want to see when everything is resolved.
Print that report out and give it to me—either text it or email it. With that information, I can work with you to address every single thing on that list, so when you go to the DMV, you won’t have to come back looking for more information. Many times, people have tickets in multiple parishes, or a bunch in one parish. For the most part, we can get everything taken care of at once; we just need to know it’s there. That’s why it’s crucial to get your driver’s license status from the DMV before we dive deep into the work, only to find out later there’s more holding things up.
If your tickets are in Orleans Parish, for example, there’s a judge we can work with who can clear everything for a fraction of the price. Otherwise, we go to the various sections of court, deal with the tickets, and get you the proper reinstatement letters from the court that you’ll need to take to the DMV to show the tickets have been resolved. Keep in mind, any money owed to the DMV—they’ll often put you on a payment plan so you can get your license back already. So, if your status report looks like you owe thousands of dollars, take a breath and give us a call. It may not be a situation where you have to wait to pull all that money together. Often, you’ll end up paying far less than that.
The reality is, when you need your license back, you need your license back. The best way is to call and talk to an attorney who knows their way around traffic court and can get you the paperwork you need to go to the DMV and get your license back in one trip. This is probably the most common call I’ve received over the last 10 years. It may seem daunting at first, but we can help you.
My name is Bradley Phillips with Phillips Law. We handle car accidents, traffic tickets, DWIs, and criminal law all the way up to robberies and murders. If you need us, call us—we’re always here for you. Initial consultations are always free, and we hope we can help.
