Kecia Drake never expected to be spending her Monday morning in Mecklenburg County's traffic courtroom. 

But an officer who stopped her told her that her driver's license had been revoked because she hadn't paid a speeding ticket in Greensboro 22 years ago.

"Yeah, it was a shock to me! Because I said, ‘I don't have a North Carolina license’ -- but he said, ‘It says here you have a revocation -- it was revoked,’" Drake said.

Her story is typical of thousands of similar cases that hit North Carolina courtrooms every year.

DWLR -- driving while license revoked -- is one of the most common charges on the daily docket in traffic court, and Mecklenburg County's trial court administrator, Todd Nuccio, said it’s time to change that.

"It's very costly to the defendant and it's very time-consuming for the court system to sort through," Nuccio said Monday.  

He wants the state to decriminalize driving while license revoked, except in cases in which someone has had their license taken away for DWI.

The change would require the state legislature to pass a bill decriminalizing the DWLR charge in certain circumstances, and Nuccio made his pitch to local lawmakers last week, stressing it would save millions of dollars.

"You're looking at $7 (million) to $9 million in savings to the system just here in Mecklenburg County alone," Nuccio said.

The bill has the support of some local defense attorneys, and the district attorney is on board as well.

"It certainly sucks up a lot of resources and as we think about, how do we do it smarter and better, the question is, do we continue to have it as a criminal offense?" asked Andrew Murray.

Murray said that in the majority of cases, they want people to get their drivers' licenses back provided they pay any unpaid fines and a restoration fee.

Drake couldn't agree more. After weeks of worry and two hours in court Monday, a prosecutor dismissed her DWLR charge.