(a) (1) Any person whose driver's license or driving privilege as a resident or nonresident has been cancelled, suspended, or revoked as provided in this act and who drives any motor vehicle upon the highways of this state while the license or privilege is cancelled, suspended, or revoked is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(2) Upon conviction, an offender shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than two (2) days nor more than six (6) months, and there may be imposed in addition thereto a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500).
(b) The office, upon receiving a record of the conviction of any person under this section upon a charge of driving a vehicle while the license of such person was suspended, shall extend the period of the suspension for an additional like period and, if the conviction was upon a charge of driving while a license was revoked, the office shall not issue a new license for an additional period of one (1) year from and after the date such person would otherwise have been entitled to apply for a new license.
History. Acts 1937, No. 280, § 37; Pope's Dig., § 6861; Acts 1959, No. 307, § 17; A.S.A. 1947, § 75-341; Acts 1993, No. 445, § 4; 1999, No. 1018, § 1.
Amendments. The 1999 amendment inserted “resident or” preceding “nonresident” in (a)(1); and made stylistic changes.
Meaning of “this act”. See note to § 27-16-301.
Cross References. Penalty for violation of 1959 amendatory act, § 27-50-305.
Case Notes
Defendant's motion to suppress should have been granted because the officers lacked probable cause to arrest him for driving under a suspended or revoked driver's license, and consequently were precluded from inventorying his impounded vehicle in which 60 kilograms (130 pounds) of cocaine were discovered; therefore, conviction reversed on appeal in order to permit defendant to withdraw his guilty plea as provided for in ARCrP 24.3(b). Mounts v. State, 48 Ark. App. 1, 888 S.W.2d 321 (1994).
Suspensions in one state have the effect of precluding a driver from obtaining a license in other states; that is what happens in Arkansas, and recognition of foreign state suspensions is appropriate so long as those suspensions are effective for a fixed period of time. Sievers v. City of Fort Smith, 320 Ark. 136, 894 S.W.2d 940 (1995).
A suspension that continues for nine or ten years is not temporary under anyone's definition and certainly exceeds the one-year limitation set out under § 27-16-912. Sievers v. City of Fort Smith, 320 Ark. 136, 894 S.W.2d 940 (1995).
Cited: Stevens v. State, 319 Ark. 640, 893 S.W.2d 773 (1995); Cook v. State, 321 Ark. 641, 906 S.W.2d 681 (1995); Brown v. State, 54 Ark. App. 44, 924 S.W.2d 251 (1996); Hazelwood v. State, 328 Ark. 602, 945 S.W.2d 365 (1997).