Driving licence authority ignored appeal by a man with adult representation

In a decision issued in November 2021, the LPD Upper Austria ordered the driving licence holder to undergo a medical examination to determine his fitness to drive, which the man appealed against (complaint), pointing out that he was allowed to do so without his adult representative. The adult representative, however, informed the authority that he did not support the complaint, whereupon the LPD Upper Austria considered the driving licence holder's complaint to be irrelevant.

The summons to the official doctor thus became legally binding and when the man did not comply, his driving licence was revoked in January 2022 until the order (official doctor's appointment) was complied with. The driving licence holder lodged an appeal against this. In this case too, the adult representative did not support the appeal, but pointed out that the authority itself would have to examine whether the driving licence holder's appeal should therefore be considered irrelevant.

The driving licence authority believed that the appeal of the presentation should also be considered irrelevant and that - after a driving licence withdrawal of more than 18 months - not only the fitness to drive would have to be determined for the reinstatement, but also the practical driving test would have to be taken again. The man complained to the Austrian Ombudsman Board, in the portfolio of Ombudswoman Elisabeth Schwetz.

"The Ombudsman Board's investigation showed that the adult protection law in force since 2018 no longer restricts a person's capacity to act and litigate, as was previously the case under guardianship law. The decision-making capacity would have had to be examined ex officio in individual cases," explains Ombudswoman Schwetz. In the present case, however, such an examination by the driving licence authority would not have been comprehensible. "The Ombudswoman therefore criticised the fact that the driving licence authority automatically considered the appeals lodged by the driving licence holder to be irrelevant," said the Ombudswoman. The man was ultimately able to regain his driving licence after his fitness to drive was determined by the official doctor, but without a practical driving test.