You Have 20 Days to Appeal a Civil Motor Vehicle Infraction

I have been getting some inquiries from people who have been cited for motor vehicle infractions and they appear to have legitimate defenses to the violations. However, they were found responsible because they failed to file their appeals within the required 20 day appeal period or pay the required $25.00 filing fee.

In Massachusetts, if you want to exercise your right to appeal a citation for civil infractions, you must do so within 20 days of your receipt of the citation. You can appeal by sending the citation to the Registry using the envelope provided by the police officer who issued you the citation. For your citation appeal to be docketed, you must pay the required $25.00 filing fee. The failure to pay the appeal fee may result in your appeal not being processed and you will lose you right to contest the citation.

Traffic tickets in Massachusetts can result in the imposition of license suspensions such as a 4 year habitual traffic offender revocation or a 60 day 7 surchargeable event suspension. Therefore, it is important to appeal if you were unjustly cited. Also, a responsible finding on a traffic citation may result in an increase in your automobile insurance premium.

Failing to file a timely citation appeal can result in unforeseen consequences such as the loss of your driver’s license and an increase in your car insurance rates.

The 20 day appeal period applies only to citations where the “all civil infractions” box is checked and there is a monetary fine amount listed. If the “criminal complaint application” box is checked on the citation, you only have four (4) days to appeal. You can do this by checking off the box on the citation indicating that you are requesting a hearing and signing the citation. You must then bring the citation to the Clerk-Magistrate’s office of the District Court which has jurisdiction over the location where the automobile law violation was alleged to have occurred.

If you fail to send the criminal complaint citation to the appropriate Clerk-Magistrate’s Office within 4 days, you will lose your right to a Clerk-Magistrate hearing and your case will likely be scheduled for an arraignment.

If you have received a citation for a criminal offense, meaning that the “criminal complaint application” box is checked, you should contact a lawyer to discuss your options and legal representation.