Request By:
Hon. Dwight Preston
County Attorney
#30 Public Square
Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of the Attorney General concerning the portion of the motor vehicles law pertaining to the habitual violator statute, KRS 186.641-186.649. You want to know in what court an information against an accused person should be filed, the circuit court or the district court.
It is our opinion the information required to be filed by KRS 186.643 should be filed with the clerk of the district court. Said statute reads as follows:
"The county attorney, upon receiving from the Secretary of the Department of Transportation the abstract of record shall forthwith file an information against the accused person in the court of record having jurisdiction of criminal offenses in the political subdivision in which such person resides."
The district court is a court of record. KRS 24A.010(4).
While prosecution as an habitual violator of the motor vehicle laws is not a criminal prosecution, it clearly comes under the jurisdiction of the district court. KRS 24A.010(2) provides:
"The district court may be authorized by law to adjudicate the actions or decisions of local or administrative agencies, special districts or boards. Such adjudication shall not constitute an appeal but an original action."
It is therefore our opinion that an information on habitual violator should be filed with the clerk of the district court in the district in which the accused resides.