Out of State Suspensions on the Increase

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles has recently made some changes to its operations regarding out of state suspensions and motor vehicle violations, so more incidents will not appear on your Massachusetts Driving Record. Under G.L. c. 90 § 22(c), the Registry is required to suspend or revoked your Massachusetts Driver’s License if your right to operate has been suspended or revoked in any other state or jurisdiction. Also, the Registry is required to penalize Massachusetts residents and license holders for out of state convictions, as if they had occurred here in the driver’s home state of Massachusetts.

If, for example, your MA driving record reflects an entry for “M84 – Reckless Driving,” you will have an automatic 60-day license suspension here in Massachusetts. This suspension may not be valid, depending on the state where the alleged “reckless driving” occurred. Massachusetts suspensions triggered by reckless driving convictions in Virginia, Florida, and Ohio should be appealed on legal grounds.
“A21 – DUI” is another common out of state conviction which the Registry will apply to your MA driving record. The Registry suspends for 1 year for a first DUI offense and these suspensions are also definitely worth appealing. I have been able to terminate these DUI suspensions, on legal and fairness grounds, for numerous clients.

In many cases, these suspensions are applied years after conviction and it is unfair to penalize drivers for violations which they have committed many years ago.

Massachusetts residents may now see the code “NRVC WITHDRAWAL” on their records or they may get letters from MassDOT listing this as a suspension reason. This refers to the Non-Resident Violator Compact, which is an agreement between states to suspend in the driver’s home state when he has outstanding violations in another state. MassDOT also checks the Problem Driver Pointer System (PDPS) of the National Driver Register to enforce out of state suspensions.

Some Mass. License holders ma have their licenses suspended for “D35 – FAILURE CMPLY FIN RESPON.” This happens when the driver has been convicted of DUI and he has not provided the required SR-22 certificate to state which requires it such as New Hampshire.

If you are dealing with a Massachusetts suspension triggered by an out of state incident, you may want to retain a Massachusetts lawyer to assist you in dealing with the Mass. RMV.