Drivers who were convicted of infractions years ago are being told to surrender their licenses or file costly appeals because Allegheny County never processed the paperwork. A state lawmaker wants to make sure it never happens again. 

The court rulings went back years — some more than a decade. But clerks in the county Department of Court Records never sent 20,000 of them to PennDOT in Harrisburg. As a result, about 2,000 drivers were never informed their licenses were to be suspended until now. 

"You have people who were convicted of something 10, 15 years ago and are now being punished for it, and that's not how this country works," said Pennsylvania Rep. Natalie Mihalek. 

Some convicted of driving under the influence have since turned their lives around but are just now being told by PennDOT to surrender their licenses. 

"Now, over a decade later, they're getting hit with a license suspension that could potentially cause them to lose their job, lose everything that they've worked for," attorney John Biedrzycki told KDKA-TV earlier this month. 

Despite the delay, PennDOT says it has no choice but to issue the suspensions, saying in a statement: "There is no 'expiration date' on convictions or discretion that PennDOT can exercise here ... PennDOT processes reported convictions when received as is required by law and will continue to do so." 

State Rep. Natalie Mihalek wants to change that and is proposing legislation requiring the courts and PennDOT to issue the suspensions within six months of sentencing. She is also calling on the state's Judicial Conduct Board to investigate the county Department of Court Records to determine how the failure occurred, who is responsible and what safeguards must be implemented to prevent it from happening again. 

"Somebody's going to need to be held accountable for this," Mihalek said. 

Court records director Michael McGeever says he is instituting safeguards and some clerks and supervisors responsible no longer work for the county.