That's interesting. I'm not sure I see how it could be anything worse than the penalty for driving without your drivers license (which will always get you ticketed, but rarely anything worse). I can always just not present my license at all.
> I can always just not present my license at all.
Sure, that might work.
But a likely scenario is the officer will ask your name and DOB and look you up on his MDT and now you've got three tickets (including whatever you were pulled over for because now it is definitely not going to be a warning) instead of just one.
Another scenario is the officer discovers you have your license and are just refusing to show your license. In California, and other states, you've now escalated a simple ticket to a misdemeanor with large fine and possible jail time.
Another scenario is you just update your address with the DMV and don't risk compounding your problems during a traffic stop.
Right, I'm not suggesting you can't get a ticket for it (though that's never happened to me; the police always asked "is this your current address" and I'd say "nope" and give them my actual address and that'd be the end of it --- it is handy that I'm a middle-aged white dude, though). I'm just surprised by the idea you could get worse than a ticket.
I don't at all see how you could get in trouble for "refusing" to show your license. You'd just say you didn't realize you had it. (This is relevant to my interests; in Chicago, your DL is also your bond on tickets, and also, when you get a new license, you get a paper temp license day-of, good for several months, and the real license in the mail; I'm holding on to the paper temp and denying possession of the real one if I'm ever pulled over, because getting bonded DL's back is a giant pain.)
I'd be interested in knowing whether you could point me to a state that explicitly says not updating your address is a misdemeanor.
Interesting. It's a cheap fix-it ticket (much cheaper than a speeding ticket) in MN, but (apparently) it's annoying because it requires an actual court appearance (I haven't cracked the code on which offenses require court appearances in Chicago; I've only had to go once or twice. I wonder if those were misdemeanors as well.)
