Since we opened our doors in 2018, our attorneys have defended clients facing traffic court fines and fees without the ability to pay. Time and again, we work to reduce or drop these fines and fees so that our clients can get their driver’s licenses reinstated.
Defending individuals in the courts, our team began to recognize a pattern where unpaid fines and fees led to losing your license or, worse yet, incarceration. Between late 2018 and 2019, our Founding Executive Director Amanda Alexander served on the Michigan Joint Task Force on Jail and Pretrial Incarceration, which recommended sweeping legislative changes, including removing license suspensions for those who failed to appear in court or could not pay their traffic-related tickets.
In March 2020, we published the Highway Robbery report (above) detailing the historic and contemporary ways that Metro Detroit traffic enforcement and courts operated with racial bias and economic inequity. We used the report to advocate for systemic change from law enforcement, judges, policymakers, and prosecutors.
While drafting the report, DJC staff attorneys also testified before the task force as well as the state legislature about the impact that license suspension has on racially and economically marginalized communities. One of our attorneys, Erin Keith, also sat on a coalition of local and state advocates, movement partners, and other stakeholders, who were instrumental in reviewing proposed legislation line by line, providing feedback on its areas of strength and its shortcomings, and working to ensure the new laws would be impactful to the indigent populations we serve.
In October 2021, we celebrated new legislation coming into effect where the Michigan Secretary of State (SOS) lifted driver’s license suspensions for certain driving law violations. As the law currently stands, the Michigan Secretary of State should no longer suspend driver’s licenses because drivers were issued traffic tickets for many lower-level traffic offenses or because drivers missed a court date in these types of cases. Licenses may still be suspended or revoked if you are charged with or convicted of significant driving violations, including but not limited to no-insurance violations, driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, or any violation that results in injury or death. While the new legislation may not resolve bias in policing and courts, it opened up a pathway for thousands of Michiganders to have their licenses reinstated, and we wanted to ensure that drivers were able to take full advantage of the new laws.
Beginning in 2022, our team, led by staff attorney Rubina Mustafa, partnered with MI Department of State, DTE, 211 Michigan, Miller Canfield, United Way, Michigan WORKS!, and the MI Department of the Attorney General, among others, to host Road to Restoration (R2R) clinics across the state. The clinics are free and open to the public, with the assurance that participants will not face arrest for seeking assistance with getting their licenses reinstated. Michiganders are invited to visit the clinic closest to them, speak with a volunteer attorney to review their driving records, and determine tangible next steps in reinstating their licenses. Our team has traveled all over the state to participate in these clinics, and our attorneys have trained dozens of volunteer attorneys in the R2R process. As of May 2025, the R2R clinics have allowed nearly 10,000 Michiganders to get back on the road as licensed drivers, and we’ve hosted multiple clinics within correctional facilities, removing barriers for incarcerated people so they face fewer obstacles upon release.
The Road to Restoration clinics have been a resounding success, and as we continue this work statewide, we look forward to exporting the model to our partners outside of Michigan in the future.
