RALEIGH, N.C. — The cost of court has increased about 400% in North Carolina over the last few years. That’s according to the N.C. Justice Center, a group helping to get people out of courtrooms and back into their cars after accruing traffic tickets.

What You Need To Know

The cost of court has increased about 400% in North Carolina

About 300,000 North Carolinians have a suspended license

If you need help with a suspended license, you can go here to resolvetrafficdebtnc.org 

Laura Holland is trying to get around 300,000 people into their cars after they got a suspended license.

“It’s not because they don’t want to pay their ticket. It's not because they’re scoffing the law. It’s mostly because they’re not able to pay,” Holland said.“It’s not because they don’t want to pay their ticket. It's not because they’re scoffing the law. It’s mostly because they’re not able to pay,” Holland said.

Holland is the project director of the Fair Chance Criminal Justice Project. The tool kit she’s creating is for district attorneys around the state. A North Carolina statute allows DAs to motion to eliminate unpaid fees, but Holland found it's severely underused. She’s hoping to remind them about it and give them a step-by-step guide to eliminate traffic debt for people.

“It’s a cycle of a law that continuously, automatically, suspends someone's drivers license for unpaid debt and keeps that suspension in place until they pay the ticket or resolves it,” Holland said.

Dianna Powell was one of those people. She said it started out with speeding tickets she wasn’t able to pay, and it snowballed. Eventually, her debts cost $10,000. She’s now the executive director at Justice Served and is using her experience to get people out of their traffic debt.

Holland says she’s hoping all of this will eventually come with a change. 

“Ultimately what needs to happen is a change at the General Assembly. [They] need to change the law to eliminate debt-based drivers license suspension or reduce it significantly,” Holland said.

For those dealing with traffic debt, you can visit resolvetrafficdebtnc.org