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If you have received an administrative hearing letter from the Suspension Department of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, you should contact a lawyer to discuss your legal rights and the availability of legal representation before the Registry. These letters are sent out when adverse action against a person’s driver’s license or motor vehicle registration is contemplated by the Registry. In order to afford the customer due process, these letters are a prerequisite to a driver’s license suspension or motor vehicle registration revocation.
The Registry will take suspension action against you if you fail to appear and the Registry may also take this adverse action against you even if you appear at the hearing. The offense usually listed in these generic letters is “complaint regulatory.” This is a “catch all” phrase which could be triggered by a variety of different reasons.
A lawyer may be able to help you find out what’s going in prior to the Registry hearing, which could be very helpful to your case. As a first step in that process, you or your attorney can request a copy of your driving record from the Registry. This record can be requested via the Registry’s website and it will be e-mailed to the requestor.
If you have received a complaint regulatory suspension notice, you can speak with a Registry representative by telephone prior to your hearing. You can reach the Registry’s Suspension Help Line by calling 857-368-8200.
This hearing may be a very important opportunity to provide exculpatory evidence to the Registry and to show why the Mass. RMV should not take action against you, your driver’s license, or motor vehicle registration. An attorney may be able to prevent the loss of your right to operate and other negative consequences.
The Registry is not required to provide you with advance notice of all adverse actions. In some situations, the law allows the Registry to impose immediate license revocations. For example, if the Registry has received an immediate threat complaint from law enforcement officials, it may immediately revoke your license and hold a hearing after the revocation has been imposed.
In all cases, if you have received an administrative hearing letter, revocation notice, or a notice of the Registrar’s intent to suspend your Massachusetts Driver’s License or right to operate motor vehicles, you should contact a lawyer to discuss your situation and legal representation.
Whenever your license or right to drive has been suspended or terminated, you must immediately stop operating any and all motor vehicles until the Registry has reinstated and restored your driving privileges. Driving without a valid license in effect is a criminal offense and you may be arrested. Also, if you are convicted of unlicensed operation or operating while suspended or revoked, you may have additional suspensions and adverse actions taken against you. In some cases, these convictions result in four-year Habitual Traffic Offender Revocations.
You cannot apply for a driver’s license or learner’s permit in Massachusetts or any other jurisdiction while you are under suspension. If you do not live in Massachusetts, and you have a valid license from another state, you may legally drive on that out of state license. However, you cannot drive here in Massachusetts. The Mass. suspension or revocation will supersede your out of state license in this state.