If you owe child support to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, you may be at risk of having your driver’s license indefinitely revoked by the Registry of Motor Vehicles. G.L. c. 90, § 22(g) requires MassDOT to indefinitely and automatically revoke a person’s driver’s license once the Massachusetts DOR has made a final determination regarding child support delinquency and the delinquent amount due remains unpaid. The law provides no right to a Registry hearing regarding this type of license revocation. Instead, an appeal hearing can be held at the Mass. Dept. of Revenue. This DOR Child Support Enforcement (CSE) hearing, which is held pursuant to G.L. c. 119A § 16 is the only avenue available to contest this type of mandatory license revocation. Absolutely no hardship license is available while a non-payment of child support revocation is in effect and there are no exceptions to this rule. Neither the Registry nor the Division of Insurance Board of Appeal will grant hardship relief for this type of license loss and it makes no sense to hire a Registry lawyer to fight this type of suspension.
Child support arrearages are often the result of unfavorable divorce or other probate and family court judgments. The best away to avoid this type of situation is to hire the best divorce lawyer you can find, such as Attorney Mary Jo Hart, whose office is located at 290 West Main Street in Northborough, Massachusetts.
Once you have addressed the delinquency with the Child Support Enforcement Unit of the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue (DOR), your license will not automatically be reinstated. Instead, you must pay a $100.00 reinstatement fee to resolve the indefinite revocation. The DOR is supposed to electronically notify the RMV that the delinquency has been addressed. If this does not happen automatically, you can bring a copy of the DOR release to a Registry Hearings Officer for entry into the MassDOT computer system.
Again, do not bother trying to get a hardship license if the Mass. DOR has revoked your license. No hardship licenses are available in this situation and, unfortunately, there are absolutely no exceptions. Instead, you must address the issue through the state Department of Revenue.
