Delayed Mass. DUI License Suspensions
The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles sometimes commences DUI license suspensions years after the driver has been convicted of the offense. These late suspensions often occur due to a court's failure to notify the Registry of the conviction. Without the necessary conviction information, the Registry is unable to add the suspension to the driver's record. In order to address this issue, in partnership with Massachusetts Courts, the Mass. RMV implemented a computerized notification system whereby the court clerk's office can now efficiently and electronically notify the Registry of Motor Vehicles of a DUI, drug, or motor vehicle law conviction.
This system will undoubtedly streamline and improve the notification process. This is one example of the major technological improvements which Registrar Rachel Kaprielian has implemented. Other such improvements include free electronic license expiration notifications and providing enhanced services through the Registry's website, such as the ability to instantly obtain your Massachusetts Driving Record.
Prior to the implementation of the new electronic notification system, the Registry relied on paper record which were supposed to be mailed in by the courts. This did not always happen and conviction information sometimes never made it into the Registry's computer. In some cases, the Registry added DUI convictions and automatically imposed OUI license suspensions years after conviction. The Registry was without the legal authority to do this.
In no less than five (5) Massachusetts Superior Court Decisions, in Massachusetts OUI cases, it has been unanimously and emphatically stated that the defendant's license is revoked immediately upon conviction, no matter what the Registry does. It is the DUI conviction which automatically and instantly revokes the license, not the Registry. Consequently, years later, the Registry cannot suspend someone's license after the suspension window has been closed. For example, a 2nd offense DUI conviction results in a 2 year license revocation. The RMV only has the legal authority to suspend that person's license within a 2 year window after conviction, and the suspension must expire exactly 2 years after the conviction date, no matter when the Registry imposed it. The plain language of the Massachusetts DUI law supports this. The statutory language reads, in pertinent part, as follows: "[a] conviction of a violation of subparagraph (1) of paragraph (a) shall revoke the license or right to operate of the person so convicted..." Noticeably absent is any mention of the Registry having to do anything. Indeed, it is the conviction and not the Registry which triggers the automatic DUI license revocation.
