Massachusetts DUI convictions carry automatic and mandatory license suspensions. In order to get a hardship license from the Registry of Motor Vehicles you must serve the minimum amount of suspension time, with longer DUI suspensions requiring offenders to serve hardship license waiting periods. Those convicted of DUI will be required to complete alcohol programs of various lengths, based on their number of DUI convictions.
The Board of Appeal is not required to hold hardship license candidates to the waiting periods or alcohol program requirements as the Registry. However, the Board is concerned with risk of recidivism, which is the risk of the hardship license candidate having a “relapse” and it considers hardship license cases very carefully. If you are facing a 2 year, 8 year, or 10 year license revocation for drunk driving, and you want to get a hardship license, please contact me. I have been very successful in obtaining hardship licenses for deserving clients.
In some cases, if your first offense DUI conviction entered 10 or more years prior to your 2nd offense, you may be able to get treated as a “2nd chance first offender.” This means that you can avoid the 2 year 2nd offense license suspension and only serve a 45 to 90 day suspension of your driver’s license. This disposition, which is commonly referred to as a “Cahill” disposition, must be approved by the judge who presided over your DUI case. If you get a Cahill disposition on your 2nd offense DUI, then you will only be required to complete the 1st offender 24D alcohol program and not the 14 day 2nd offender program.
All DUI second, third, and fourth offenders must use a certified breath alcohol ignition interlock device during the full term of any hardship license and for 2 years after getting a full reinstatement. This is a requirement of Melanie’s Law and the only exception allows certain qualified out of state residents to reinstate their licenses in their home states without the ignition interlock device. However, these non-residents will never be allowed to drive in Massachusetts or obtain a Massachusetts license without serving at least 2 full years with the IID. The initial cost for an ignition interlock device is approximately $125.00 and it costs approximately $85.00 per month for the required monitoring and downloading.