Limited Driving Privilege Changes | October 1, 2015

On October 1, the NCAOC Court Services and Technology Services Divisions will be posting updated versions of several limited driving privilege forms in order to account for the General Assembly’s recent expansion of G.S. 20-179.3 to allow driving under a privilege for religious worship purposes.

Specifically, effective for limited driving privileges issued on or after 1 October 2015, the General Assembly has amended G.S. 20-179.3 to add religious worship to the permissible driving purposes. See S.L. 2015-185 (HB 229), § 2. The privilege holder’s driving for religious purposes will be subject to the same restrictions that apply to driving for work-related purposes. Id. The full text of the legislation is available using the following link: http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H229v5.pdf.

This change affects limited privileges issued directly under G.S. 20-179.3, and those that are issued under a handful of other privilege provisions that incorporate the requirements and restrictions of G.S. 20-179.3 by reference.

The affected privileges, and their corresponding amended forms, are as follows:

• Refusal revocation privileges under G.S. 20-16.2(e1) – form AOC-CR-313;
• Civil revocation privileges under G.S. 20-16.5(p) – forms AOC-CVR-10 and AOC-CVR-11;
• ABC violation revocation privileges under G.S. 20-17.3 – form AOC-CR-312;
• Driving after consuming underage revocation privileges under G.S. 20-138.3(d) – form AOC-CR-312;
• Open container revocation privileges under G.S. 20-138.7(h) – form AOC-CR-312;
• Hit and run revocation privileges under G.S. 20-166(e) – no form at this time, although form CR-318 could be marked-up for this purpose;
• Impaired driving revocation privileges under G.S. 20-179.3 – forms AOC-CR-312 and AOC-CR-340; and
• Out-of-state impaired driving revocation privileges under G.S. 20-179.3 – form AOC-CV-352.

The NCAOC has amended each of these forms (CR-312, CR-313, CR-340, CV-352, CVR-10, and CVR-11) to add religious worship to the permissible purposes for which the privilege holder may drive.

(Note: The NCAOC also has made a technical change to the G.S. 20-28 references on these forms, and to the G.S. 20-28 reference on limited privilege form CR-318, in order to account for a G.S. 20-28 subsection renumbering that the General Assembly enacted in S.L. 2015-186 (HB 529).)

Again, the NCAOC will be posting these forms for use for privileges issued on or after October 1. The NCAOC Court Services Division will send a notice once the forms are posted and available.

State Law prohibits the Clerk’s Office staff from; providing any legal advice, providing instructions for completing forms, referring an attorney, or recommending specific ways to pursue legal action.