T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Belmont County Northern Division Judge Adam Myser and Belmont County Northern Division Court Clerk Colleen Ivan prepare for the second annual Amnesty Day on March 24 at the Belmont County Court building at 52160 National Road, St. Clairsville from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County Northern Division Judge Adam Myser will host the second annual Amnesty Day on March 24.

The event will be at the Belmont County Court building at 52160 National Road, St. Clairsville from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Myser said the initiative was created to assist residents with a suspended license without having to fully pay their reinstatement fees

“Amnesty Day is an opportunity for individuals that have a suspended license to come to the court and seek amnesty without having to pay all of their reinstatement fees,” he said.

He added that representatives from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles will be in attendance to pull up the resident’s license and find out what the status is, and if they’re suspended. Once determining the status, they’ll go through why the individual’s license is suspended.

“Many people will qualify for amnesty, which means that they can receive anywhere from 90 to 100% of a waiver for their reinstatement fees, which means that they may be able to become valid on the spot,” Myser said.

He added that there are 54 ways for a resident to receive a suspended license in the state of Ohio.

“There may be other opportunities to lift their license holders,” Myser said. “For instance, if you have a traffic ticket at a county court and you fail to appear, we put a holder on your license. So what we can do that same day is to hold a court session to serve you with a copy of your citation, talk to you about what’s going on with the citation, and lift that holder.

“There are some people who may need insurance, and so we’ll have a representative here that can provide SR 22 insurance policies to them,” Myser added. “There are some people that may have a holder for back child support, we will have a representative from Belmont County Job and Family Services that can enter them into a payment plan and actually take money from them on the spot and start them on their payment plan to lift the suspension.”

He added that when a holder is placed on a person’s license its not only that their license is suspended, but it holds them from registering a motor vehicle and stops them from getting or updating their license.

Myser said that the idea came from the courts in Belmont County noticing that several individuals come through the court with driving under suspension offenses.

“So instead of continuing to have a case, them pleading guilty to this case, and then we release them, and then they obviously go and drive, we are attempting to break that system and to get them or help them get a valid license,” he said. “For one day out of the year, we roll up our sleeves, come right down with them, and say, ‘What is it that we need to do to get valid?’ Most of the people can get valid, so … we have to wipe away some old reinstatement fees, or we have to enter them into a new payment plan. On some of the other ones, there’s just a variety of different ways that our court system can assist them, maybe it’s getting driving privileges, or resolving an old traffic ticket or an old fine that had to be paid.”

Myser added that he understands people attending the Amnesty Day may be driving under a suspended license and wants to inform the public that he has no intention of having police standing in front of the door arresting people who may have illegally driven to the event.

Last year was the first time the court held the event and Myser said it was a smashing success.

“Last year we had 99 people come and out of that we helped 70,” he said.

He added that the 29 people who weren’t able to be helped were due to them being Belmont County residents but their restriction was from a different jurisdiction. Myers added that even though he wasn’t able to fully help those residents he did help by informing them where they needed to go to resolve their issues.

“This was an initiative that we had started last year that turned out to be very beneficial and very fruitful for everybody. It helped the courts clean up old cases. It helped these individuals get valid licenses. It really helped Job and Family Services collect some delinquent back payments on child support. So it was kind of a huge win-win-win for everybody that we wanted to keep this initiative going,” He said.

For more information about Amnesty Day, contact the Belmont County Court Northern Division at 740-676-4490.