As most readers of this blog know, many people charged in North Carolina with driving while impaired and other implied consent offenses suffer the immediate consequence of having their driver’s licenses revoked pursuant to G.S. 20-16.5 by the magistrate at their initial appearance. North Carolina enacted its administrative license revocation procedure as part of the Safe Roads Act of 1983, terming the suspension of licenses of certain persons charged with implied consent offenses “a civil license revocation.” 1983 N.C. Sess. Laws ch. 435. The measure has since been denominated a CVR by acronym-happy officials and practitioners. You can read more here about the statutory bases and procedural requirements for CVRs. This post focuses on the nature and constitutionality of G.S. 20-16.5 revocations when coupled with a defendant’s conviction of the underlying implied consent offense. When it was first enacted, G.S. 20-16.5 provided for a ten-day driver’s license revocation and restoration upon payment of a $25 fee. Writing about the procedure shortly after its enactment, my colleague Jim Drennan described the legislation as providing an immediate “ ‘slap in the face’ to virtually all drivers charged with DWI” and as making it “more certain that a sanction will be imposed, regardless of the defendant’s status or his lawyer’s expertise.” James C. Drennan, Impaired Driving: The Safe Roads Act, North Carolina Legislation 1983 (Ann L. Sawyer, ed. 1983). The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s characterization of such revocations is similar. NHTSA’s 2011 Highway Safety Countermeasure Guide describes such license revocations, which exist in [...]
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