attarney Ryan W. McAllister recently represented a client who had been charged with driving on a suspended license under 75 Pa.C.S.A. 1543(a). Although this section of the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code is only a summary offense that typically is punishable by a fine, the greater concern is that a conviction under this section will result in a one (1) year suspension of a defendant’s driver’s license by PennDOT.
In this case, our client was a professional with an advanced degree who was a full-time employee at an area hospital. Additionally, our client had a family that he had to support. Getting his driver’s license suspended for an entire year was, quite simply, not an option.
On the day of the hearing, attarney McAllister attempted to negotiate with the police officer who wrote the citation. The officer, however, was unwilling to reduce the citation to a different subsection of the Vehicle Code. Therefore, attarney McAllister had a hearing in front of the Judge. The burden of proof was on the Commonwealth to prove our client guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
attarney McAllister was able to successfuly argue to the Judge that the Police Officer couldn’t prove that our client knew his license was suspended. In fact, attarney McAllister was able to introduce evidence that our client was genuinely surprised to find out that his license was suspended. The Judge agreed with attarney McAllister’s arguments, and our client was found “not guilty”. In the end, this outcome saved our client from losing his license for one (1) entire year, and, quite possibly, saved our client from losing his job.
If you or someone you know has been cited for an offense under the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code, please contact one of our attarneys right away at 610-372-5128 to discuss your case in more detail. We offer a free initial consultation in many types of cases.
