Driving While License Suspended or Revoked in Michigan

In Michigan, driving while your license is suspended, revoked or denied, or without ever having applied for a license, is a misdemeanor under MCL 257.904, punishable by up to 93 days and/or a $500 fine for a first violation and up to 1 year and/or $1,000 after a prior conviction.^[5][1] The Secretary of State also adds another suspension or revocation equal to the original one.^[2]

The offense is often called DWLS (driving while license suspended) or DWLR (revoked). It is closely tied to OWI cases, because an OWI conviction or a test refusal can lead to a suspension or revocation.^[6][7] This page covers what the statute forbids, the punishment tiers, the license, plate and vehicle consequences, and the 2021 changes for unpaid fines.

What the statute prohibits

MCL 257.904(1) bars a person whose license or registration certificate is suspended or revoked, whose license application was denied, or who never applied for a license from driving a motor vehicle on a highway or other place open to the public or generally accessible to motor vehicles, including parking areas.^[5] The place language mirrors the wording of the OWI statute.^[5][8]

The statute also reaches vehicle owners: a person may not knowingly permit his or her vehicle to be driven by someone who is suspended, revoked, denied or never licensed.^[9] There is one narrow exception: the section does not apply to driving solely to protect human life or property when it is endangered and summoning prompt aid is essential.^[10]

Penalty tiers

Situation	Penalty
First violation, MCL 257.904(3)(a)	Misdemeanor: up to 93 days and/or up to $500[1]
After a prior conviction, MCL 257.904(3)(b)	Misdemeanor: up to 1 year and/or up to $1,000[1]
Causing serious impairment of a body function, MCL 257.904(5)	Felony: up to 5 years and/or $1,000 to $5,000[3]
Causing death, MCL 257.904(4)	Felony: up to 15 years and/or $2,500 to $10,000[3]
Owner knowingly permitting, driver causes serious impairment, MCL 257.904(7)	Felony: up to 2 years and/or $1,000 to $5,000[11]
Owner knowingly permitting, driver causes death, MCL 257.904(7)	Felony: up to 5 years and/or $1,000 to $5,000[11]

The two felony tiers for the driver also apply to a person driving during a suspension or revocation imposed by another state.^[3] They do not apply when the license was suspended because the person failed to answer a citation or comply with an order or judgment under section 321a.^[3] A conviction for DWLS causing death can stand alongside a conviction for OWI causing death for the same death.^[12]

To seek the higher tier based on a prior conviction, the prosecutor must list the prior on the complaint and information; the prior is proved at or before sentencing with records such as a judgment, a register of actions or the driving record.^[13] Before arraignment, the arresting officer must get the person's driving record from the Secretary of State and give it to the court.^[14]

The added suspension or revocation

When the Secretary of State receives a conviction for driving, or for a reportable moving violation, committed during a suspension of definite length or before approval after a revocation, it must immediately impose "an additional like period of suspension or revocation."^[2][15] If the suspension was indefinite or the application had been denied, it adds 30 days.^[2] Several convictions from the same incident count as a single violation for this purpose.^[16]

There is a one-time lifetime exception: the added period does not apply to a person whose only current suspension or denial is under section 321a (failure to appear or pay) and who was convicted of a violation during that suspension.^[17]

Extra consequences when the suspension came from an OWI

An OWI-related sanction raises the stakes of driving during it.

• After a revocation for repeat OWI, a license may not issue for at least 1 year, or 5 years if this revocation followed another within 7 years, and the driver must then win a hearing.^[18][19] Driving before approval brings the added like period of revocation.^[2]
• A person who violates the conditions of a high-BAC interlock-restricted license, or drives at 0.025 or more, receives another full suspension and restriction period.^[20]
• Violating any restricted license is a misdemeanor, and the Secretary of State may suspend or revoke it.^[21]
• An interlock-restricted person who drives a vehicle without a properly installed interlock commits a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months and/or $5,000.^[22] The officer must impound the vehicle and, if the driver owns it, destroy the plate.^[23]
• For a sobriety court participant on a restricted license, driving without an interlock leads to summary loss of the restricted license and reinstatement of the full original sanction.^[24]
• An unlicensed person convicted of an OWI-type offense is denied a license for as long as the sanction would have lasted.^[25]

See the restricted license, ignition interlock devices and license revocation after OWI.

Plates, immobilization and forfeiture

• Plates: on a first violation, the Secretary of State must cancel the vehicle's plates on notice from an officer, unless the vehicle was stolen or used with the permission of an owner who did not knowingly let an unlicensed driver use it. After a prior conviction, only a stolen vehicle is excepted.^[1][26]
• Immobilization with prior DWLS: if a person has a second or later section 904 suspension or revocation within 7 years, the court must proceed under the immobilization statute.^[27] With 1 prior added suspension within 7 years, immobilization of up to 180 days is optional; with 2 or 3 it is mandatory for 90 to 180 days; with 4 or more, 1 to 3 years.^[28]
• DWLS causing death or serious impairment: the court may order forfeiture, and if it does not, it must order immobilization.^[29]
• Owner's vehicle: immobilization may be ordered against a vehicle whose owner knowingly permitted it to be driven by a suspended driver, whether or not a conviction resulted.^[30]
• Registration: the Secretary of State must refuse to register a vehicle to an owner whose license is suspended, revoked or denied for a fourth or subsequent suspension or revocation under section 904.^[31]

Forfeiture decisions weigh multiple section 904 suspensions heavily in favor of forfeiture.^[32] See vehicle immobilization and license plates and registration.

What changed in 2021 for unpaid-fine suspensions

Michigan's "Clean Slate to Drive" law, 2020 PA 376, took effect October 1, 2021.^[4] Since then, a failure-to-appear or failure-to-pay suspension under section 321a applies only to a violation "for which license suspension is allowed under this act."^[4] Beginning the same date, the Secretary of State must waive the reinstatement fee for, and immediately reinstate, any license suspended for reasons no longer allowed.^[33] The same act repealed the old automatic suspension for certain drug convictions that applied even when no vehicle was involved.^[34]

These changes did not remove failure-to-appear suspensions in OWI cases. If a person charged with or convicted of an OWI-type offense fails to appear, the court mails a notice, and the license is suspended if the person does not appear within 7 days or comply with the judgment within 14 days; a $45 clearance fee is due for each failure.^[35] The Department of State runs free "Road to Restoration" clinics with volunteer attorneys to help people with suspended or restricted licenses review their records; the clinics do not hold restoration hearings.^[36]

Before driving after any suspension ends, confirm your status with the Secretary of State and pay any reinstatement fee; a license does not always become valid again automatically. The $125 reinstatement fee applies after OWI-related suspensions and revocations.^[37]

For the full list of fees, see fines, costs and fees after an OWI; for restoring a revoked license, see license restoration hearings.