Indiana specialized driving privileges

Indiana's hardship license is specialized driving privileges, granted by a court — and it requires SR22 insurance for as long as it lasts. Tell the court at the initial hearing and you have 10 days to petition.

What specialized driving privileges are

Indiana's “hardship license” is called specialized driving privileges, or SDP, and it comes from a court, not from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. When a court suspends a license after a conviction — or a person is under a BMV administrative suspension — a court “may stay the suspension and grant a specialized driving privilege.” The court sets how long it lasts and what it allows, and it may schedule periodic reviews.

SDP requires an SR22 for its whole length

This is the part people discover late. A person granted SDP “shall maintain proof of future financial responsibility insurance during the period of specialized driving privileges” — in Indiana, the SR22 — and must carry the court order (or keep it in the vehicle), show it to a police officer on request, and carry a valid state ID or license. Commercial driving is not allowed during the suspension.

The BMV adds that its Out of State Residency Affidavit, which can waive some SR22 requirements, “does not affect the SR22 requirement for Specialized Driving Privileges.” Moving away does not end it. The filing itself — 25/50/25, filed electronically by your insurer — is covered on the Indiana SR22 page; a lapse reported on an SR26 puts the person back where they started.

Who can get it

SDP covers people who held an Indiana license when they were convicted of an offense in which operating a vehicle is an element, or of an OWI offense — and Indiana residents who never held a license but were suspended while residents (the court will then require them to obtain one). A conviction for an offense causing serious bodily injury, or a repeat OWI, carries a suspension of at least a year that is still SDP-eligible.

Who cannot

• A person who has never been an Indiana resident.
• A person whose suspension is for refusing a chemical test — though a court may grant driving privileges under a separate provision, IC 9-30-6-8(d).
• A person convicted of an offense that caused a death while operating a vehicle or under the OWI chapter — suspended at least two years, and not eligible.
• Someone previously granted SDP who has more than one conviction for violating its conditions.

Timing: say it at the initial hearing

For a criminal case the most useful rule is procedural. If the person tells the court at the initial hearing that they intend to petition for SDP, the court must stay the suspension, hold back the probable cause affidavit from the BMV, and set an SDP hearing within 30 days. The petition then has to be filed within 10 days; miss that and the stay is lifted and the affidavit goes to the BMV for automatic suspension.

The petition

A petition is filed in every court that ordered or imposed a suspension, verified, stating age, date of birth and address, the grounds and the relief sought, and served on the BMV and the prosecuting attorney, who appears for the BMV. For a BMV administrative suspension with no court order, it goes to a circuit or superior court in the county where the person lives.

Interlocks, registration and the fee

A court may make an ignition interlock a condition of SDP; if it does, the installation period is credited as part of the suspension. Where the suspension came with a registration suspension under the financial responsibility chapter, the court may lift that too as a condition of SDP. When the BMV later issues a license to someone who held SDP, there is a $10 specialized driving privileges charge on top of the ordinary fees.

Breaking the conditions

Knowingly or intentionally violating an SDP condition is a Class C misdemeanor. The court that issued the order may modify or revoke the privileges and order the BMV to lift the stay and reimpose the original suspension, plus any added one. A second violation conviction also closes the door to SDP in future.

If the conviction behind the suspension is reversed, vacated or dismissed, or the person is acquitted, the suspension ends — and the SDP expires with it, because there is nothing left to stay.

Common questions