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Who issues missouri drivers license4/24/2024 The two named plaintiffs are parents who fell behind on their child support payments because they could not afford them, not because they did not want to pay. We also contend that the suspension scheme violates the debtors’ right to travel. We argue that this statutory scheme violates procedural due process by not giving debtors a pre-suspension hearing to assert that they cannot pay off their debt in full. On Monday, March 4, Equal Justice Under Law filed a lawsuit in Missouri against the Family Support Division, the Department of Motor Vehicles, and Governor Michael Parson for this discriminatory suspension scheme. Debtors’ children watch as their parents struggle to make ends meet, and sometimes these suspensions prevent non-custodial parents from seeing their kids. Suspending debtors’ driver’s licenses may seem like a good incentive to force payment-but it’s one that punishes parents and children for being poor. For most parents in this situation this can be the choice between keeping their kids fed and having a roof over their heads, or homelessness. Without a license, parents in debt have two options: drive and risk criminal charges, or stay home and fall deeper into debt. Most Missourians have an average work commute of 47 minutes, but without reliable transportation it can become an impossible feat to travel. And even in the areas that do have a form of public transportation, the options are expensive and time consuming. There are few options for public transportation, especially in the rural parts of the state. It is near impossible to get from place to place in Missouri without a car. And when they stop working, they fall deeper into debt. Here is where the logic of the license suspension fails-without a driver’s license most parents in Missouri can’t get to work. None of these options provide any leeway or help to people who cannot afford their payments. And even after the suspension, parents only have three options: pay their debt in full, accept a payment plan from the state, or go to an administrative hearing to prove they are not in debt. The statute only gives parents three months to figure out their finances before an agency or the court can suspend their license. Parents want to support their children, but poverty gets in their way. This theory is out of touch with parents who don’t have the financial stability to pay. The legislative theory establishes that parents won’t support their children until the state threatens to take something from them. Missouri’s statutory scheme portrays parents with support orders as individuals who do not want to support their children.
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