What Does it Mean to Have a Suspended License?

A suspended driver’s license could be caused by an accumulation of points due to infractions or because of a specific conviction, for example a serious traffic offense like reckless driving or driving under the influence. It means that the Department of Motor Vehicles has suspended or revoked either a person’s driver’s license itself or their privilege to drive. The difference is that if you have a District of Columbia license, then the DC DMV has the authority to revoke your license and you won’t be able to drive legally anywhere.

If you have a Maryland license, for example, but you get into trouble in the District of Columbia such that the DC DMV wants to suspend or revoke your privilege to drive in the District, they don’t have control over your actual license but they do have control over the geographic region of DC, so they can revoke or suspend your privilege to drive in DC. It is important that a person who does have a revoked or suspended license not drive in DC because the penalty for driving on a suspended license in DC exceeds that of a DUI in terms of the maximum possible jail time for a first offense. A person who avoids jail time for a DUI but, as a result of the DUI, has a suspended license and is then caught driving in the District could potentially end up getting a worse penalty for the driving after the suspension than for the actual initial DUI. That is not a situation that you want to be facing, so I advise people that if you have a suspended license, do not drive in the District of Columbia.