How Long will my License be Suspended?

In the event that you are charged with the any of the following offenses, your driving license can and will be suspended. In North Carolina (NC) the following offenses highlight how long a mandatory driving license suspenditure will be valid.

You cannot afford to loose your license or have your insurance premiums skyrocket due to not being properly represented. Our Traffic Lawyers can even assist you in obtaining a limited driving privilege if necessary. Our Driving Defense is not limited to Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, but Gaston County, Cabarrus County, Lincoln County, Rowan County, and Iredell County as well.

What the statute sets

For suspensions under the point system, G.S. 20-16(c) fixes the ceiling rather than the length. A first suspension shall be for “not more than 60 days.” A second “shall not exceed six months.” Any subsequent suspension “shall not exceed one year.”

The wording matters. These are maximums, not fixed terms, and the Division has room to impose less. Descriptions that state a first suspension “is” sixty days are overstating a ceiling as a certainty.

Conviction-based revocations run differently

Where the suspension follows a specific conviction rather than a point total, the period comes from the provision governing that offense and is often longer and less flexible.

Impaired driving carries its own revocation scheme, with periods running from one year upward and permanent revocation available for repeat offenses. Driving while license revoked for an impaired revocation adds a further year on a first offense, two years on a second, and permanent revocation on a third or subsequent.

Point-system first suspension: not more than 60 days
Point-system second suspension: not more than 6 months
Point-system third and subsequent: not more than 1 year
DWLR on an impaired revocation: +1 year, then +2 years, then permanent
Failure to appear or pay: indefinite, until the case is resolved

Indefinite suspensions

Not every suspension has an end date. A suspension for failing to appear or failing to pay runs until you clear the underlying matter and pay the reinstatement fee. It does not expire on its own, and years can pass without a person realizing their license is still revoked.

If you have ever missed a court date on a traffic matter, check your status directly with the Division rather than assuming. It is the single most common cause of an unexpected driving while license revoked charge.

When the clock starts

A revocation period runs from the effective date on the Division’s notice, not from the date of the offense or the date of conviction, and not from the day you stopped driving. Surrendering your license does not start the clock either.

Where a person keeps driving and is charged with driving while revoked, the new conviction typically adds its own period on the end. Two overlapping revocations do not run concurrently in the way people expect.

Getting it back

Reinstatement is a process rather than an expiry. At the end of the period you will generally need to apply, pay a restoration fee, and in some cases satisfy additional requirements — proof of insurance, a substance abuse assessment and any recommended treatment, or an ignition interlock device.

Where the revocation followed an impaired driving conviction, the assessment and any recommended education or treatment must normally be completed before restoration, and those programs take time. Starting them early shortens the period you spend without a license after the revocation itself has run.

Driving in the meantime

For most revocations a limited driving privilege is available, permitting travel for employment, education, household maintenance, medical care and court-ordered treatment. It has to be applied for, and eligibility depends on the reason for the revocation and on your record.

Anyone whose work depends on driving should treat the privilege application as the priority, ahead of the underlying ticket. It is the part of the outcome that affects daily life immediately.

Probation instead of suspension

G.S. 20-16 allows the Division to place a driver on probation as an alternative to suspension in some circumstances. Probation of a license means driving continues, subject to conditions, with the suspension held in reserve if a further violation occurs.

It is discretionary and it is not offered in every case, but it exists, and it is worth raising at a hearing rather than treating suspension as the only possible outcome.

Challenging the suspension itself

A driver facing suspension is generally entitled to a hearing before the Division. That hearing is not a re-trial of the underlying tickets — those convictions stand — but it is an opportunity to argue about the length, about probation as an alternative, and about hardship.

The window for requesting it is short and it is set out in the notice. Missing it forfeits the hearing entirely, which is the most common way drivers lose an option they did not know they had.

Reopening the underlying convictions

Where the points came from convictions entered in your absence — a ticket paid by mail, or a case resolved after a failure to appear — it is sometimes possible to have the matter reopened and the conviction set aside, which removes the points that produced the suspension.

This is fact-specific and time-sensitive, and it is not available in every case. Where it is available it is usually the most effective route, because it removes the cause rather than mitigating the consequence.

Insurance while revoked

Letting insurance lapse during a revocation causes its own problem: the Division requires proof of financial responsibility to restore a license, and a lapse can trigger a separate penalty.

Speak to your insurer about a non-owner policy or maintaining coverage through the period. Restoring a license is considerably harder when a lapse has to be cured at the same time.

Revocation that starts before the case is decided

Some revocations begin at the charge rather than at the conviction. Under G.S. 20-16.5 a judicial official must order an immediate civil revocation where an officer has reasonable grounds to believe an implied consent offense was committed and the driver either wilfully refused the chemical analysis, registered an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more, or registered 0.04 or more after driving a commercial motor vehicle.

Where the driver is present when the order is issued, the period is 30 days and begins at the time of the order. Where the driver is not present, it runs 30 days from surrender of the license if that happens within five working days of the order, and 45 days if it happens later or the license is taken under a pick-up order.

A limited privilege is available during this period, but not immediately: G.S. 20-16.5 requires the license to have been revoked at least 10 days on a 30-day revocation, or 30 days on a 45-day revocation, alongside a substance abuse assessment and the conditions in G.S. 20-179.3.

Refusing the test carries a separate twelve months

Refusing the chemical analysis produces a revocation of its own. Under G.S. 20-16.2(d), once the Division receives a properly executed affidavit recording a wilful refusal, it revokes the license for 12 months. The order takes effect on the thirtieth calendar day after it is mailed, and a hearing must be requested in writing before that date.

That revocation is civil and runs separately from the prosecution. North Carolina appellate courts have held the exclusionary rule does not apply to these proceedings, so evidence suppressed in the criminal case may still support the revocation, and the twelve months can stand even where the charge is dismissed. Under G.S. 20-16.2(e1) a limited privilege becomes possible only after the license has been revoked at least six months for the refusal and the further conditions are met; where the refusal occurred in a case involving death or critical injury, G.S. 20-16.2(d1) allows none at all.

Common questions

I hold a commercial license. Is the period the same as for an ordinary license?

No. Disqualification from driving a commercial motor vehicle is a separate sanction under G.S. 20-17.4, imposed alongside any revocation of the ordinary license rather than instead of it. A first major offense, which includes an impaired driving conviction and a refusal, carries a one-year disqualification, extended to three years where the offense occurred while the driver was transporting a hazardous material. A subsequent qualifying offense carries disqualification for life.

How long do I have to request a hearing on a refusal revocation?

The request must be made in writing before the effective date of the order, which G.S. 20-16.2(d) sets at the thirtieth calendar day after the order is mailed. Notices go to the address the Division holds, so an out-of-date address is a common way the window is missed. If the revocation is sustained at the hearing, G.S. 20-16.2(e) allows a petition to be filed in superior court within 30 days.

Written for North Carolina law and reviewed by David P. Sheehan, attorney, Charlotte. General information, not legal advice — see the disclaimer.