The driving ban and the course of the procedure

We all know someone who has had to serve a driving ban, or may have experienced it ourselves. Increasingly, the legislator links a driving ban to violations of traffic law provisions. 

In this news blog, we discuss a number of points regarding the driving ban and how the procedure unfolds.

The driving ban as a penalty or as a safety measure

A driving ban, or disqualification from the right to drive, is generally a very effective sanction for a serious traffic offence. The sanctioned driver experiences the consequences of their actions firsthand.

In principle, a driving ban is always imposed as an additional penalty, alongside a ‘principal penalty’, which usually consists of a fine.

There is one important exception, namely ‘the immediate withdrawal of the driving licence’, which the Public Prosecutor’s Office can impose as a safety measure without the intervention of a judge. Such a safety measure has a maximum

When does a driving ban take effect? 

A driving ban does not take effect immediately after the judgment. After the 30-day appeal period has expired and the administrative processing has been completed, the local police officer personally delivers a notice to the convicted driver stating that the driving ban will start within 5 days and that the person concerned must submit their driving licence within 4 days, either in person or by registered mail, to the registry of the police court that handed down the conviction.

If this timing is very inconvenient for the person concerned, many police officers are generally willing to present the notice again a week later.

In the distant past, lawyers could write to the Public Prosecutor’s Office requesting that the driving ban take effect at a time that suited the person concerned (e.g. during a holiday or a stay abroad). However, as the Public Prosecutor’s Office became increasingly aware that this undermined the purpose of the sanction, such requests have no longer been granted since 2005.

Once the driving ban has taken effect, driving is no longer allowed, unless the court has ordered that the ban must be served during weekends or is limited to vehicles of a specific category (it must always concern the category with which the offence was committed). In that case, the person concerned may exchange their driving licence at the town hall before the start of the ban for a licence reflecting those modalities.

Driving ban in Belgium, may I drive abroad? 

Because Belgian criminal law is by definition territorially limited, a driving ban only has effect within the national borders (this is also explicitly confirmed by Article 42 of the Convention of 8/11/1968 (Vienna) on Road Traffic). If the driver wishes to drive abroad during the ban (e.g. on a ski trip), this cannot be prohibited. However, since the driving licence remains at the court registry throughout the entire ban, a practical problem arises.

It is often suggested that this practical problem can be solved by obtaining a so-called international driving permit from the town hall before the driving ban starts. 

However, this advice is not correct. The ‘international driving permit’ is merely a ‘translation’ of the national driving licence, allowing authorities in other countries to establish that the ‘national driving licence’ is indeed an official document certifying the person’s ability to drive. It is therefore a kind of international ‘translation’ of the national driving licence and has no validity unless accompanied by that national driving licence. If someone is abroad during the driving ban, they must therefore always present both documents. Moreover, national driving licences are recognised in all EU countries, so an international driving permit is not required in any EU country. 

At present, the practical problem simply does not seem to be remediable. In this respect, there is also no willingness whatsoever on the part of the legislature and/or the authorities, probably because it seems unfair for a penalty to have no effect once someone is abroad.

In practice, however, this does not necessarily mean that driving abroad is impossible. For example, the driver may have taken a photo of their surrendered driving licence, show the document confirming mandatory surrender during an intervention by foreign police authorities, or have the municipal office confirm by telephone that the driver holds a driving licence (but is not carrying it). If necessary, the foreign police officer may draw up an official report for the fact that the driver is not in possession of their driving licence, but this is a minor offence (which, for example, in Belgium is sanctioned with a fine of €80).

Driving ban and the reinstatement tests

If the return of the driving licence was made conditional on passing 1 or more of the 4 reinstatement tests (theoretical, practical, medical and psychological), then in theory a problem may arise where the person concerned has not yet had the opportunity to take such a reinstatement test, while the driving ban itself has already expired. As a result, the driving ban has a longer effect than was imposed by the court.

To avoid this problem, the necessary documents are sent to the person concerned well in advance so that they can take the tests in time. It is, of course, essential that the person concerned does not leave these papers unattended.

When one or more reinstatement exams have been imposed, limiting the driving ban to weekends is not possible. After all, as long as the reinstatement test has not been taken, the person concerned is deemed not fit to drive. According to the legislature, he/she can hardly be considered fit to drive during the week but not during weekends.

That this is a somewhat strange twist is evident from the fact that, after hearing a judgment imposing a driving ban with retake exam(s), everyone is simply allowed to drive home and may continue driving until the driving ban is officially served by the local police officer, often many weeks, if not months, later. 

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