The weekend driving ban
If you commit a traffic offence and you are summoned before the police judge, in addition to a fine, you sometimes risk being banned from driving, known as ‘forfeiture of the right to drive’. But when the police judge imposes a driving ban, if you request it, he can decide that your driving ban will only continue on weekends and public holidays. This is the ‘weekend driving ban’. The weekend driving ban is a favourable measure that the judge can grant you, taking into account the concrete circumstances of the case.
Specifically, a weekend driving ban means that you cannot drive from:
- Friday at 8pm until Sunday at 8pm;
- 8pm on the eve of a public holiday until 8pm on that public holiday.
If a weekend driving ban is imposed, you will be informed of the driving ban a few months after the decision, either by a letter by post with an invitation to attend the police station or by the district police officer in person. As soon as you have been personally informed of the driving ban (by signing a document), you should hand in your driving licence at the registry of the court that pronounced the driving ban no later than the fifth working day afterwards. This is therefore the registry of the police court or of the correctional court (in degree of appeal).
The weekend driving ban goes into effect the first weekend after the five days have passed. However, in the case of a weekend driving ban, you do not have to go to court every Friday to submit your driving licence. You will be given a certificate when your driving licence is issued that allows you to obtain a new temporary driving licence from the municipality. This new temporary driving licence will therefore only allow you to drive during the week (if it is not a public holiday). The cost of this new temporary driving licence is normally EUR 25.00. Once the driving ban is over, you can collect your ‘old’ driving licence from the registry.
There is another practical problem with a weekend driving ban: since it takes several days for the municipality to produce the new licence, you will spend several days driving around without your licence in your pocket. Driving a vehicle without having your driving licence is strictly speaking a traffic violation for which you can be punished! In practice, however, this will not be sanctioned as you are waiting for your new temporary driving licence.