Drive Safe, Stay Clear
Video Transcribed: So what is considered masking in Oklahoma? Hello. I’m Ty Smith, an Oklahoma lawyer with Wirth Law.
This one is especially going out to my CDL holders. Masking is a fancy way of saying the state is throwing you a bone. The district attorney there is throwing you, as the CDL truck driver, they’re attempting to protect you. They’re trying to keep an infraction from going on your record and possibly affecting your licensure because they recognize that truck driving is an important profession to make the world go round, and so it’s an attempt to try to keep drivers on the road. Now, there’s been a clamp down on this. The Oklahoma Legislature has really stepped in and said, “You can’t do this. If you commit, we need to know what drivers are dangerous and what drivers are not.”
And so they have put together a list of things that are called masking and that are not going to be allowed by district attorneys anymore going forward, basically as of about 2021, and we’re shooting this in 2023, well, within that. So first off, masking requires a conviction for an offense. There’s no conviction, then there’s been no masking. In other words, if you can get the charge dismissed for some reason, that’s not masking. But here are some examples of what is masking. If a DA reduces a violation for the sole purpose of keeping it off of your driving record, masking. If they fail to submit a conviction to the DA Department of Transportation, they just don’t send it up to them, that’s masking. If there is a conviction, but the court allows for a traffic school or some type of diversion to keep it off your record, masking, is not allowed. For someone, a more experienced driver who may be picked up one of these before, you may recognize that, that’s what was allowed to happen to you. It’s not allowed anymore, unfortunately.
Now, some examples of what is not masking. If the prosecution chooses to dismiss the case because there’s weak evidence that you committed the crime, the infraction, the violation. If you have a trial and you win, dismissed, not masking obviously. If you go through trial and before a judgment of guilt is issued, the prosecutor decides to offer a reduced punishment of some type that’s not masking. So you’re still being convicted of something, but there’s been a modification of it in that case.
I know it could be confusing, but if you want to talk to an attorney about it, I would love to speak to you about it. Once more, I’m Ty Smith, an Oklahoma City CDL attorney with Wirth Law Office. I’m out of the Oklahoma City area. In fact, you can find me at theoklahomacityattorney.com. You can call my office at (405) 888-5400, and I’d be glad to speak to you about matters like this and hopefully help you out a little bit. I thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.
