Court Opinion

ID: 9714459
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:38:00.330889+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:26.154623
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HEIPLE, dissenting: A person cannot be guilty of driving while license suspended unless his license has actually been suspended. A license is not suspended until the Secretary of State says so. Thus, an administrative act of the State is a prerequisite to the offense. Because the State makes the final determination as to when a suspension becomes effective, the State is required to give notice of a suspension in writing mailed to the driver’s last known address. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 951/2, par. 6 — 206(c)(1).) The issue before us is the relevance of a defendant’s allegation that he did not receive notice of suspension. The majority holds that notice is merely part of a defendant's mental state. Driving while license suspended is a strict liability offense. It requires no mental state. Therefore, the majority argues that a defendant’s lack of notice is irrelevant because it merely establishes that the offense was committed unknowingly. If notice is irrelevant, then why require it in the first place? Notice is not optional, it is mandatory, as it should be when an administrative act must precede the offense. To say that notice is irrelevant because a defendant is charged with an offense which is malum prohibitum merely ignores the argument. Although the question of notice necessarily involves a defendant’s state of mind, notice is more properly associated with procedural due process. If the State makes a prima facie showing of compliance with section 6 — 206(c)(1) and yet the defendant fails to receive actual notice, has the defendant received due process? I think not. The problem is then compounded when courts refuse to permit the defendant to attempt to prove lack of notice. This is fundamentally unfair, especially when the offense carries with it a potential jail term. If the notice requirement is to have any meaning, a defendant who claims to have received no actual notice must be permitted to present his proof in court. Under the present statute, the dispute over notice would boil down to the State’s word against the defendant’s. The State would show that notice was deposited in the mail, postage prepaid, and the defendant would respond that he never received it. The only way to avoid such a dispute is by legislative amendment requiring that notice be sent by certified mail. Of course, the burden would be on the defendant to prove that he kept the State apprised of his current address. Just as it is unfair to deny a defendant actual notice of a suspension, it would also be unfair to expect the State to keep track of a person in our highly mobile society without notice of change of address. For these reasons, I would remand the cause in order to permit the defendant to offer evidence of his alleged lack of notice. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.