Driver's License Clinic

Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles - 040029

Abstract Number: 040029

April 2004

Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) offers a driver's license clinic to provide information and assistance to self-represented litigants who are seeking to have their drivers' licenses reinstated. LAFLA launched this program to remove employment barriers for low-income people who are seeking better paying jobs that require a driver's license.

LAFLA's monthly driver's license clinic was initially launched in 1999 in response to a federally funded construction project which required a contractor to hire 1000 low-income local residents for the project. The contractor's hiring requirement of a valid driver's license led LAFLA to work with the Alameda Corridor Jobs Coalition-Training and Employment Corporation in offering clinics to provide license reinstatement help to low-income residents seeking employment on this major construction project.

Once this project was completed in 2001, LAFLA began offering the monthly driver's license clinics to other job training organizations serving low-income persons in south Los Angeles. LAFLA receives funding from the City of Los Angeles to offer these clinics which LAFLA hosts in conjunction with three local nonprofits, the Los Angeles Urban League, Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles, and Job Starts, Inc. Individuals, whose licenses are suspended for a number of economic reasons, including failure to appear on or pay a traffic ticket, driving without insurance, outstanding child support, an unresolved DUI, or an unsatisfied judgment due to a traffic accident, attend the clinics for help in resolving these issues and removing the subsequent barrier to better employment that a suspended license presents for them.

Individuals seeking this help must bring to the clinic a less than 2 week-old Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) abstract to document the reasons for their suspension or revocation. Each clinic includes a 30 minute general presentation by an attorney who outlines the general steps participants must take to get their licenses reinstated. After that presentation, participants meet individually with an attorney who reviews their DMV abstract and details the specific steps, included in the manual that each participant is given, that they need to take to get their driver's licenses reinstated. LAFLA staffs the clinics with three to four trained, pro bono attorneys who provide participants with the appropriate forms and instructions on how to resolve their problem as self-represented litigants.

Three months after each clinic LAFLA mails that clinic's participants a form to get feedback on the effectiveness of the clinic by asking them if they had their license reinstated, obtained a restricted license, or made significant progress towards either, and if they have a reinstated or restricted license, have they obtained a better job as a result. LAFLA has found that no more than 10% of the clinic participants complete and mail back the form and so LAFLA follows up with as many of the remaining participants as they can reach by phone. By doing so, LAFLA has found that they can obtain responses from at least 85% of all clinic participants. Based on these responses, LAFLA has determined that within three months of attending a clinic over 50% of clinic participants have their licenses reinstated, obtain a restricted license, or make significant progress towards a restricted or reinstated license. In that same three month period, approximately 25% land better paying jobs as a result of having a valid license, even if only a restricted one.

To learn more about this project, read the article below and visit the Driver's License Clinic page of LAFLA's web site.

Contact Information:

Barbara Corkrey, Director
Removing Barriers to Self-Sufficiency Project
Community Economic Development
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
South Central Office, 8601 South Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90003
Phone: (213) 640-3983
Fax: (213) 640-3988
Bcorkrey@lafla.org

Additional Information:

• Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, "Driver's License Clinic Follow-Up Form," January 2004 ( 22k)

• Barbara Corkrey, "Restoring Drivers' Licenses Removes a Common Legal Barrier to Employment," Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and Policy (January-February 2004) 523-527  ( 86k)

*This article appears courtesy of Clearinghouse Review.

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