Operating After Revocation and Suspension

1997 Wis. Act 84 (and amendments)

OAR Simplification

Current OAR/OWS law:

OWS or OAR offenses penalty structure tied to the reason a person is suspended or revoked. Different penalties for FPF related OWS or OAR, Alcohol Offense related OWS or OAR, and other OWS and OAR offenses

Act 84 (Coming Soon):

OWS penalties all the same (civil forfeiture - $0 - $200)

OAR 1st penalty is a civil forfeiture until 5/1/2000 ($0 – 600)

OAR 2nd and subsequent offense penalties all the same (criminal 0-6 months jail + $0 – 2500 – judicial sentencing guidelines)

Phase 1: effective 8/1/98 or earlier

Provisions already made effective by effective date provisions of Act 84

Extra legislative step to making a drivers license sanction a revocation (s.13.965, Stats) [eff. 8/1/98]

DOT Secretary can make other act provisions effective as state systems are ready [eff. 4/28/98]

Habitual Traffic Offender Provisions [Recalculation] – 8/1/98 effective date

Recalculation has been effective at reducing the number of drivers revoked as habitual traffic offenders. As was believed prior to Act 84, many HTO offenders were in that status because of OAR/OWS offenses.

DMV did 11,556 HTO recalculations as of 1/7/2000. 10,053 of those HTO cases were released because they were due to OAR/OWS violations.

New HTO cases dropped from 8,608 in 1997 to 2,625 last year.

OAR and OWS offenses result in 3 demerit points [eff. 8/1/98]

Phase 2: Effective 1/1/2000

Revocations changed to suspensions for many offenses. [eff. 1/1/00]

FPF suspension periods reduced from 5 years to 2 years. [eff. 1/1/00]

Phase 3: Effective 8/1/2000

OAR and OWS become separate offenses. New civil and criminal offenses created and new penalty provisions.

Violation of restriction on occupational license eliminated. (s.343.10(8))

Phase 4: What Will Wait Until Spring of 2001?

Proof of Insurance related items (All the things that are VERY hard to program our computers to deal with):

1st offense OWI becoming a revocation but no proof of insurance required to reinstate.

Ch. 344 revocations becoming suspensions that require proof of insurance to reinstate.