Fee Award Eludes Drivers Who Challenged License Suspension Law

Virginia drivers who got a preliminary injunction against a law that automatically suspended their licenses because they failed to pay court costs and fines lost their bid for an award of attorneys’ fees, even though the state later repealed the law, the Fourth Circuit said.

The drivers claimed that the law unfairly punished them for being poor in violation of their due process and equal protection rights. The district court awarded them the preliminary injunction and soon afterwards the Virginia General Assembly repealed the law.

Nevertheless, under circuit precedent the drivers aren’t “prevailing parties” for purposes of a fees award ...