The pervasive practice of state and local governments suspending driver’s licenses for failure to pay tickets or fines, which can be particularly devastating to low-income people, is the focus of a recent issue brief co-authored by Partner Danielle Conley.

Titled “Discriminatory Driver’s License Suspension Schemes,” the brief was co-authored by Ariel Levinson-Waldman, founding president and director-counsel of Tzedek DC, an organization that provides legal assistance to low-income debtors. Ms. Conley, co-chair of WilmerHale’s Anti-Discrimination Practice, is on Tzedek’s advisory council.

“License-for-payment schemes are especially problematic because their consequences fall disproportionately on low-income communities of color,” the authors wrote. “The criminal justice implications of these schemes are emblematic of this disparity. In an analysis in DC, for example, where roughly 47 percent of residents are African-American, over 80 percent of those arrested in a single year for driving without a license were African-American.”

Beyond describing the problem, the authors examine current reform efforts, including jurisdictions implementing payment plans or amnesty programs, and the use of litigation by advocacy groups opposed to such license suspensions.