A Maine work-restricted driver’s licenses are available only under a couple of situations. As always, please feel free to call me and we can discuss your specific situation to see if you qualify for a Maine work-restricted driver’s license. We will review these situations below to help you understand when you can get a Maine work-restricted driver’s license.

First Offense Operating Under the Influence (OUI)

The general guidance is that with an OUI suspension for a Maine first offense OUI, a Maine Work-Restricted license only allows you to drive for work for the administrative suspension only. If you are convicted at Court of the first offense OUI, you will have to serve the Court imposed suspension of 150 days. There is no right to a Maine Work-Restricted license for a second or subsequent OUI suspension.

The steps you need to take to obtain a Maine Work-Restricted Driver’s License are:

1. Petition the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) clearly stating details about your employment.
2. When you submit the petition, include your Maine Driver’s License and a $50.00 reinstatement fee.

It is important to keep in mind, that a Maine work-restricted license does not have any impact on the mandatory minimum license suspension time required by the State if you are convicted of the OUI charge.

There is only one place you can drive to and back from with a Maine Work-Restricted Driver’s license – and that is to work and back home. If your work requires you to drive, the Maine Work-Restricted license would allow you to drive for that as well. That’s it. No driving to the grocery store, the mall, or your favorite restaurant. If you are a college student, there is no driving to school for classes. If you have medical appointments, you cannot drive to those either.

As an alternative, Maine does allow a person to install an Ignition Interlock Device (IID) in their vehicle once a portion of the OUI suspension has been served.

• For a first OUI Offense, 30 days of the OUI suspension would need to be served
• For a second OUI Offense, 9 months must be served of the OUI suspension period.
• For a third OUI Offense, 3 years of the OUI suspension needs to be served before eligibility for an IID occurs.

In any OUI scenario, the person must be DEEP compliant prior to installation of the IID.

First Habitual Offender (HO)

If designated as a Habitual Offender (HO), which is three (3) serious motor vehicle criminal convictions in a five (5)-year period, then you could become eligible for a work license after having served 18 months of your license revocation.

In order to apply, the steps you need to take are:

1. Petition the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) clearly stating details about your employment.
2. When you submit the petition, include your Maine Driver’s License and a $50.00 reinstatement fee.