Michigan's Road to Restoration Clinics: What They Can — and Can't — Do

Michigan's Road to Restoration clinics are free events where drivers sit down one-on-one with Michigan Department of State staff and volunteer attorneys to pull their driving record, understand exactly why their license is suspended or restricted, and map out the steps to get it back. The state launched the program's fifth season in March 2026 and plans to reach roughly 18 communities this year. If your license is suspended and you are not sure where to start, a clinic is a genuinely useful first stop — as long as you understand what it can and cannot do.

Where the clinics came from

The clinics grew out of Michigan's 2021 Clean Slate to Drive laws. Those laws ended certain kinds of license suspensions — mostly holds tied to unpaid court debt and other reasons that had nothing to do with dangerous driving — so that thousands of people became eligible to drive again. The laws did not erase anything from a criminal record; they were about restoring driving privileges, not expungement. Many newly eligible drivers still did not know it, or did not know how to finish the paperwork. The Road to Restoration clinics exist to close that gap.

What actually happens at a clinic

At a typical clinic, you can:

• Meet with staff and a volunteer attorney to review your driving record and understand every reason your license is suspended or restricted.
• Pay outstanding court fines that are holding up your reinstatement (bring a form of payment).
• Get the application you need to request a restoration hearing, if your situation calls for one.
• At stops with the Secretary of State Mobile Office, take the knowledge (written) test and buy a $25 temporary instruction permit if you are eligible.

Through the program's fourth season, the state reports that more than 4,100 residents had been served.

The 2026 stops

The 2026 season is active. The state's official page lists these upcoming clinics:

• Grand Rapids — Aug. 4
• Kalamazoo — Aug. 13
• Monroe — Aug. 19
• Detroit (Eastern Market) — Sept. 1
• Bad Axe — Sept. 9
• Hancock — Sept. 22
• Iron Mountain — Sept. 23

Dates, times, and locations change, and stops are added during the year. Always confirm the current schedule on michigan.gov/sos before you travel.

The honest limits

The state is direct about what these clinics are not, and it is worth repeating in plain terms:

• Reinstatement is not guaranteed. A clinic helps you understand and begin the process; it does not promise a result.
• You still owe your fines and fees. The clinic can help you pay them, but it does not wipe them out.
• It is not an expungement clinic. A Road to Restoration clinic does not clear a DUI/OWI or any other conviction from your record.
• It cannot give a revoked driver a hearing. This is the one that matters most for anyone with more than one drunk-driving conviction.

If your license was revoked after two or more OWI (operating while intoxicated) convictions, you can attend a clinic to learn more about the process — but, in the state's own words, “Driver's license reinstatement administrative hearings won't be conducted at clinics.” In other words, the clinic can explain the road ahead, but it cannot hand back a revoked license. That decision comes only from a formal hearing.

When the real work is a hearing

A revoked license comes back only through a hearing before the Michigan Secretary of State's Office of Hearings and Administrative Oversight (OHAO), where you have to prove your sobriety by clear and convincing evidence. A clinic can help you confirm that a hearing is what you need, but the outcome is decided by how well that hearing is prepared. Our guide to Michigan driver's license restoration explains the full path, and our page on the Michigan license restoration hearing walks through what the OHAO hearing involves and why preparation decides these cases.

If you are not sure whether a clinic or a hearing is your next step — or if you have already applied and been denied — talking it through with an attorney can save you months. Contact Baldori Law for a plain-language look at where your license stands and what it will take to get it back.