Charged with Revoked for Expired License

[MemphisWade]

My question involves a driver's license issued by the State of: North Carolina

I was recently stopped at a road block close to my home. I made the officer aware that my license was expired. The officer wrote me a ticket for DWLR, although my license has never been revoked. Shouldn't the charge be driving without license?

Thank you for any advice

[jk]

Shouldn't the charge be driving without license?

If the license was expired and not revoked, sure so go ahead and contest the ticket.

Expect the driving with no license to be the new charge you face though.

[MemphisWade]

Can they just throw a separate charge at me in lieu of their mistake though?

[jk]

they can file charges for a crime anytime within the applicable statute of limitations. I suspect driving without a license would fall under a misdemeanor charge. I would suspect somewhere around 1 year to be the applicable statute of limitations. Haven't checked to verify those statements but based on general principles, they are likely to be close to correct if not spot on.

After looking at the statute, you might have a defense though:

North Carolina General Statutes § 20-35 Penalties for violating Article; defense to driving without a license

(a) Penalty. A violation of this Article is a Class 2 misdemeanor unless a statute in the Article sets a different punishment for the violation. If a statute in this Article sets a different punishment for a violation of the Article, the different punishment applies.


(b) Repealed by Session Laws 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 761, s. 4.


(c) Defenses. A person may not be convicted of failing to carry a regular drivers license if, when tried for that offense, the person produces in court a regular drivers license issued to the person that was valid when the person was charged with the offense. A person may not be convicted of driving a motor vehicle without a regular drivers license if, when tried for that offense, the person shows all the following:


(1) That, at the time of the offense, the person had an expired license.


(2) The person renewed the expired license within 30 days after it expired and now has a drivers license.


(3) The person could not have been charged with driving without a license if the person had the renewed license when charged with the offense.
(1935, c. 52, s. 29; 1991, c. 726, s. 14; 1993, c. 539, s. 324; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c); 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 761, s. 4.)

do you now have a DL? Did you renew it within 30 days of expiration?

If so, you should be able to defend the charge.