Brian Walters on the Servicemember Civil Relief Act

[STO]

This morning Brian Walter's with The Walter's Firm attended the public meeting of the board of directors of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. He asked to make a public comment on the lack of servicemember identifying information on the motor vehicle reports that VSFs obtain in Texas. Specifically, He brought up the El Paso lawsuit by the US attorney general related to the 176 servicemembers' vehicles that were foreclosed, the issues in that lawsuit, and the desire of VSFs to never foreclosure on an active servicemember's vehicle.

This is an issue that was originally raised by several folks at Southwest Tow Operators. Specifically, the Servicemember Civil Relief Act prohibits foreclosure of storage liens on these active servicemembers' vehicles but the MVRs that Texas VSFs receive contain no servicemember identifying information. Further, there is no date of birth provided for the owner in the MVR, and this prohibits the VSF from running a SCRA search through the government's website. This seems like an easy fix, so he suggested the DMV fix it.

I am pleased to report that while my comment was spontaneous (and admittedly a bit rambling), the DMV Board and its staff took the comments very seriously. He was approached by the Deputy Executive Director, introduced to the Executive Director, and all are interested in taking swift action.

While adding a servicemember identifying information will not be a 100% solution to this issue, it could go a very long way in protecting our servicemembers. It will also provide a level of notice to vehicle storage facility owners, which will help protect them from civil liability on unintended servicemember vehicle foreclosures.

I appreciate everyone at Southwest Tow Operators for bringing this to my attention and I hope that this moves the industry towards a solution.