How to legally regain your license before trial

Procedure for returning a driver's license after deprivation

So, how to get your driver’s license back after your license has been revoked:

Determine when your driver's license suspension expires . The period is counted from the day when the court decision came into force
Let's see where to go . After this, you need to determine which department of the traffic police holds your driver’s license. The traffic police department will be the one that executed the judicial act on deprivation of rights. You can obtain a certificate from any other traffic police department, but to do this, 30 days before the expiration of the period of deprivation of rights, you should contact the traffic police department that executed the court order and submit an application with a request to send your certificate to the traffic police department where you want to receive yours rights
The third step in obtaining a driver's license after deprivation will be passing an exam on knowledge of traffic rules . The exam can be taken after at least half of the period of deprivation of rights has expired
Administrative fines are paid . You need to check whether you have outstanding fines for traffic violations. If there are unpaid fines, they must be paid in order to get your driver's license back.
After completing the above steps, you need to prepare documents for the return of your driver's license and submit them to the traffic police
If you did everything correctly, you will be issued a driver's license and you will join the ranks of happy motorists on the roads of your city

Early return of driver's licenses in 2021: what the legislation offers

Once upon a time, in 2015, there was already an attempt to submit for approval to the State Duma a draft law under No. 561521, which introduced changes to the Code of the Russian Federation regarding administrative offenses. It considered the possibility of returning a driver's license ahead of schedule to a traffic violator.

This bill addressed the issue of conditionally early return of rights for any offense on the road. But this bill was not destined to reach the first reading in its original form. It was slightly adjusted, but not in favor of the guilty drivers. Persons who drove while drunk or those who refused a medical examination will not be able to return their license until the expiration of the deprivation period.

The calendar says 2021, but this bill has not yet been adopted, as it is being considered by the State Duma.

Attention! After the bill is approved, drivers will be able to return their license early as soon as half of the deprivation period has passed.

Documents for returning driver's license

One of the steps to get your driver's license back is preparing documents. What documents will be needed to return a driver's license?

identification document (passport or other)
medical report on whether the driver has or does not have medical contraindications, indications or restrictions for driving the vehicle
documents on payment of fines
Some sources provide explanations from the traffic police on how to return the license, and among the documents there is a copy of the court order with a note about the fact of surrendering the driver’s license. However, the certificate cannot always be surrendered to the court, so you should provide a document indicating the surrender of your driver's license

PLEASE NOTE : if a person’s medical report reveals limitations or indications (which were previously absent), the old license will be considered invalid, and the person will be issued a new certificate taking into account the restrictions or indications.

Restoration of a special right to drive a car after deprivation

First of all, you should find out exactly when the period of deprivation of rights expires. This period begins to expire only after the adoption of a court decision on bringing to administrative liability, as a result of which the deprivation of rights occurs.

If this is deprivation of rights by a court sentence that imposes a sentence of imprisonment, then the countdown begins from the moment the sentence of imprisonment is served (from the moment of parole).

A court decision on deprivation of rights can come into effect only after 10 days after the accused has received a copy of the court decision. The calculation takes effect the next day.

It is worth considering that if the last, tenth day falls on a weekend or holiday, then it is transferred to the next available working day.

In a situation where the case is reviewed on appeal, the decision made by the magistrate must enter into legal force immediately after its announcement.

After this, the driver who committed the offense is obliged to surrender his license to the traffic police department three days after the decision on the administrative violation comes into force. If this does not happen, the period is suspended until delivery, seizure or receipt of a statement about its loss, which has already been prematurely sent to the traffic police. This is also suitable for temporary solutions.

The driver's license must be issued by the traffic police authority that confiscated it. This is stated in the resolution.

To return the right to drive a vehicle, the traffic police should prepare a package of documents that must be provided there.

If your license is revoked for drunk driving, you must prepare the following documents:

Identification. Can be either a temporary one or a passport;
A document that will confirm the successful completion of the traffic rules knowledge exam. It is taken into account that this is allowed only for those who committed a traffic violation after October 1, 2013. In the event of an offense occurring before October 1, 2013, traffic police officers do not have the right to refuse a refund, citing failure to pass the traffic rules exam. But if this situation occurred, then the written refusal received from the traffic police must be appealed in court. Only after this can the previously withdrawn rights be returned. But one should take into account the fact that the duration of the entire procedure may be too long, and therefore only a person can decide what will be better - to return the rights through the courts or pass the traffic rules exam. However, you need to remember that you can be allowed to take the exam only after half the period established by the court decision has passed;
Confirmation that all fines have been paid. It must be issued at the time of contacting the traffic police. This is only permitted for those offenders who violated the law after November 15, 2014. If the offense occurred earlier than the above-mentioned date, then paying all fines to return the driving license is not mandatory. But it is possible that traffic police officers will require confirmation of payment of all fines. This can also be appealed to the district court. For example, due to lack of financial ability to do this;
The last necessary point is medical confirmation of the absence or presence of a ban on driving a vehicle. It can be obtained immediately before the end of the period for deprivation of driving privileges.

The driving license must be returned on the day of application to the traffic police.

Early return of driver's license

Returning a driver's license ahead of schedule means that the person will receive a license before the period for which he is deprived of the right to drive a vehicle expires. Is this possible under our legislation? The answer is negative, i.e. The law does not provide for the early return of rights to a person who has been deprived of the right to drive a vehicle.

However, it is possible to get your license back early if you appeal acts of deprivation of a driver’s license if they are canceled by a higher court.

If the court cancels the decision by which a person was deprived of the right to drive a vehicle, then the license can be obtained in the department where they were surrendered, or in another department, but the return period will be longer, since the certificate will need to be sent. To return your rights, you will need to present a court decision to cancel the act of deprivation of rights and a passport.

USEFUL : read more about appealing an administrative decision using the link, and also order the procedure through our lawyer

Can they deprive their rights in advance - before obtaining the right to drive?

While studying at a driving school, a moment comes when we already master all driving skills, both in theory and in practice. It is then that there is a strong desire to get behind the wheel without yet having a license. This desire intensifies even more after drinking alcoholic beverages.

At the same time, there is an opinion that if you get caught without a license (precisely in the case when we never received a license), and even in a state of intoxication, then your rights can be deprived in advance. This means that when we pass the exam to obtain a license, they will be given to us only after a certain time. Logically, this time should be from 1.5 to 2 years (deprivation of rights for intoxication under Article 12.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

In fact, as of May 29, 2021, there is no such thing in law as “deprivation of rights in advance.” There is no legal opportunity for traffic police inspectors to deprive a driver who does not have such a right and is caught in a state of intoxication. And it is illogical to deprive a person of what a person does not have, especially if this happens in advance.

What will happen if you get caught without a license (we are talking about the case when we never had the right to drive, and not about those who were dispossessed)? There are two possible options:

We don't have the right to drive, and we were caught driving while sober.
We don't have the right to drive, and we were caught driving while intoxicated.

In the first case, we will face a fine of 5 to 15 thousand rubles under Part 1 of Article 12.7 of the Administrative Code:

1. Driving a vehicle by a driver who does not have the right to drive a vehicle (except for instructional driving) shall entail the imposition of an administrative fine in the amount of five thousand to fifteen thousand rubles.

If we are caught without a license and in a state of intoxication, then a more severe punishment awaits us - arrest from 10 to 15 days under Part 3 of Article 12.8 of the Administrative Code:

3. Driving a vehicle by a driver who is intoxicated and does not have the right to drive vehicles or has been deprived of the right to drive vehicles, if such actions do not contain a criminal offense, entails administrative arrest for a period of ten to fifteen days or the imposition of an administrative fine on persons in respect of which administrative arrest cannot be applied in accordance with this Code, in the amount of thirty thousand rubles.

As you can see, the same punishment is applied to those who are caught in a state of intoxication and are deprived of the right to drive. We are talking, by the way, not only about alcoholic intoxication, but also drug intoxication (and any other).

Also, punishment awaits a person who transfers control of a car to a person without a license. If the driver without a license was sober, then the transferor faces a fine of 30 thousand rubles (Article 12.7, Part 3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation), but if the driver without a license was drunk, then the transferor will face deprivation of rights for a period of 1. 5 to 2 years and plus the same fine - 30 thousand (Article 12.8, Part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

Deadline for revocation of driver's license

If the rights are returned ahead of schedule, i.e. when a person has appealed the act of deprivation of the right to drive a vehicle and it has been cancelled, then the driver’s license must be returned to the person on the day of the appeal, if it was handed over to the traffic police department.

If the decision to deprive a driver’s license has not been appealed, then you must wait until the decision comes into force, then count down the period for deprivation of the right to drive a vehicle, after which you can get your license back.

You should also take into account the time it takes to redirect the certificate if a person has expressed a desire to receive it at another traffic police department.

Who deprives

Deprivation of a driver's license is an administrative penalty. This means that it can come into force only after the case is considered by the court and an appropriate decision is made.

Therefore, if a traffic police officer threatens you with deprivation, you should know that you can safely drive a car until the court prohibits you from doing so. The task of a traffic police officer is only to draw up a protocol; he cannot make an independent decision on deprivation of rights.

Article on the topic: Procedure for depriving a driver’s license: procedure, who deprives it and how to find out about it?

Lawyer for driver's license return in Yekaterinburg

If you have any questions related to the deprivation of your driver’s license, you can contact our Law Office “Katsailidi and Partners”, which will definitely help you understand your situation. Our lawyers in matters of returning a driver’s license are ready to provide the following services:

advise on issues of return of rights, as well as other administrative matters and situations
study the acts on deprivation of your driver's license and explain the appeal procedure and possible prospects for the case
prepare a complaint against the decision to revoke a driver's license
represent the interests of the client in the traffic police departments and in the courts
prepare an application with a request to redirect the certificate to a specific traffic police department

In what cases is a driver's license most often revoked illegally?

No one argues that if the issue of deprivation of a driver’s license (VL) arose due to gross violations of traffic rules (traffic rules), then this is a fair punishment for an unscrupulous driver. Most often this is driving into the oncoming lane or driving under the influence.

But, unfortunately, it often happens that deprivation or attempted deprivation of a driver’s license (DP) is carried out with obvious violations of the law. Most often, this occurs in the following cases:

Road signs are installed that change the route pattern. At first, until drivers remember the new rules, many “violators” can be caught.
The protocol is drawn up with violations , for example, an employee leaves blank lines in which he then independently enters what he needs.
Illegal devices are used that are not certified or faulty (the breathalyzer shows the wrong percentage of alcohol content, the radar gives unreliable information about driving speed).
Controversial situations arise in which the driver’s guilt is not obvious, so it is possible to do without deprivation.

Thus, even if you are an exemplary driver who follows all traffic rules, this is not a guarantee that your driver's license cannot be revoked.

Persons entitled to early return of a driver's license

Not all violations have the right to return your driver's license early. For serious offenses such as driving while intoxicated, refusal to undergo an examination, and others, such a privilege is not provided. In this case, the answer to the question of whether it is possible to return rights early after deprivation is unambiguous. Naturally, it will be negative. Even pre-trial proceedings are useless.

In other cases, the violator must, at a minimum, fulfill the following conditions:

absence of debts on fines for traffic violations;
full monetary compensation for harm to the life and health of victims;
absence of violations of legislation in other areas;
admission of guilt for the reason for deprivation of rights.