That Subsection lists the kinds of debts that Chapter 13 does not discharge. See Section 1328(a)(2) of the Bankruptcy Code.

That’s because Chapter 13 does NOT exclude “a fine, penalty, or forfeiture payable to and for the benefit of a governmental unit” from discharge. It may be able to discharge the debt from your tickets. Because Chapter 7 doesn’t discharge traffic tickets, it cannot reinstate a driver’s license suspended for nonpayment of those tickets. A debt owed for a traffic ticket is a “fine” or “penalty” that you owe to the state, city or other local “governmental unit” whose police issued it to you. Chapter 7 doesn’t discharge “a fine, penalty, or forfeiture payable to and for the benefit of a governmental unit.” See Section 523(a)(7) of the U.S. Not Available Under Chapter 7Ĭhapter 7 (“straight bankruptcy”) doesn’t work with traffic ticket suspensions. That could enable you to reinstate your license. If your license was suspended for not paying traffic tickets, a bankruptcy can sometimes discharge what you owe on those tickets. It works about the same way with traffic tickets. After bankruptcy takes away the reason for the suspension, the driver’s license can be reinstated. Usually such a debt can be legally written off (“discharged”) through bankruptcy. These suspensions usually come from not paying a court judgment or debt from an uninsured motor vehicle accident. Our last blog post showed how bankruptcy reinstates a license suspended because of an unpaid debt from an accident. License Reinstatement Depends on Discharge of the Traffic Ticket(s) Today we cover suspensions for not paying one or more traffic tickets. Last week we covered suspensions for not paying a judgment from a motor vehicle accident while driving uninsured or underinsured.

Whether you can get your license reinstated through bankruptcy depends a lot on the reason for the suspension. One important one is getting your suspended driver’s license reinstated. We’re deep into a series of blog posts about powerful, less familiar benefits of bankruptcy. It mostly depends on the traffic laws violated. You may be able to reinstate your license in spite of one or more unpaid traffic tickets.

Suspended driver license judgment