A suspended Florida driver's license is a debt problem disguised as a driving problem. Unpaid civil traffic fines, unpaid tolls that turned into registration holds, court costs from an old criminal case, and a judgment from an uninsured accident all end the same way: at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, with a reinstatement fee you cannot pay because you cannot drive to work. Bankruptcy reaches some of these debts and not others, and the chapter you choose decides which.
Chapter 7: fines to the government survive
11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(7) excepts from a Chapter 7 discharge any debt that is "a fine, penalty, or forfeiture payable to and for the benefit of a governmental unit" and is not compensation for actual pecuniary loss. That covers:
- civil traffic infraction fines under chapter 318 of the Florida Statutes
- criminal fines and court costs imposed at sentencing
- code enforcement fines and liens from a city or county
- the penalty portion of a toll violation
What Chapter 7 does discharge is the part of these debts that is not a penalty. The underlying toll itself is a charge for using a road, not a fine, and it is an ordinary dischargeable debt. Collection agency fees added to a fine are generally dischargeable. And a civil judgment from a car accident is dischargeable unless it arose from driving while intoxicated, which 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(9) carves out separately.
Chapter 13: the broader discharge
Chapter 13 has its own list of debts that survive discharge, at 11 U.S.C. § 1328(a), and § 523(a)(7) is not on it. The only fines that survive a completed Chapter 13 plan are, under § 1328(a)(3), restitution or a criminal fine included in a sentence on a criminal conviction.
That distinction does real work in Florida. A civil traffic infraction is not a crime. Speeding, running a red light camera, expired registration, and most moving violations are noncriminal infractions under chapter 318. The fines for them are dischargeable in Chapter 13. So are code enforcement fines, toll penalties, and civil penalties from a county or municipality. They are paid in the plan as general unsecured claims, often at a small percentage, and the balance is discharged when the plan completes.
Criminal fines, restitution, and costs imposed in a criminal case are not discharged in either chapter. Those have to be paid, or reduced through the criminal court's own procedures.
Getting the license back
Florida suspends licenses for unpaid civil penalties under Fla. Stat. § 318.15 and places registration holds for unpaid tolls under Fla. Stat. § 316.1001. Bankruptcy interacts with those suspensions through 11 U.S.C. § 525(a), which prohibits a governmental unit from denying, revoking, or refusing to renew a license "solely because" the person has not paid a debt that is dischargeable or was discharged in bankruptcy.
The rule comes from Perez v. Campbell, 402 U.S. 637 (1971), in which the Supreme Court struck down an Arizona law that kept a driver's license suspended for an unpaid accident judgment the driver had discharged in bankruptcy. Congress later wrote the holding into § 525.
In practice this means:
- If the suspension is for a discharged accident judgment, the state must reinstate on proof of discharge. This applies in Chapter 7 or Chapter 13.
- If the suspension is for civil traffic fines you are paying through a Chapter 13 plan, the fines are dischargeable debts and § 525(a) requires reinstatement while the plan is pending. Florida clerks generally accept a copy of the confirmed plan and a letter from counsel; some require a motion.
- If the suspension is for civil traffic fines and you filed Chapter 7, § 525(a) does not help, because the fines are not dischargeable in that chapter. You still need a payment plan with the clerk under § 318.15.
- Suspensions for child support and for DUI or criminal convictions are unaffected by bankruptcy.
Reinstatement fees are administrative charges, not fines, and are generally treated as dischargeable, but the state will not process a reinstatement without payment, so plan on paying them.
Toll violations specifically
A SunPass or E-PASS toll violation has three parts: the toll, an administrative fee, and, if unpaid, a Uniform Traffic Citation with a civil penalty. The toll and administrative fee are ordinary debts. The civil penalty is a § 523(a)(7) fine in Chapter 7 and a dischargeable debt in Chapter 13. The registration hold under § 316.1001 lifts once the underlying obligation is discharged or being paid through a confirmed plan.
Frequently asked questions
I owe $3,800 in traffic fines across three Florida counties. Is Chapter 13 worth it just for that? Usually not by itself. Chapter 13 costs more and takes three to five years. It becomes worth it when the fines sit alongside a car loan, a mortgage arrears, or tax debt that the plan can also fix, or when the license suspension is what is keeping you from earning.
Will the collection agency for the clerk of court stop calling after I file? Yes. The stay applies to collection of the debt even when the debt itself is nondischargeable. The clerk can resume after the case closes if the fine survived, but the third-party collector must stop during the case.
My red light camera notice became a citation. Is that criminal? No. Red light camera violations in Florida are noncriminal, and the resulting penalty is dischargeable in Chapter 13.
The chapter that fits depends on income and on what else you owe. The free Florida means test calculator is the three-minute first step.