Yes, Massachusetts courts have reopened for DUI trials and other criminal matters. You will also be able to engage with the District Court related to your DUI case for all pre-trial matters including pleas, admissions, hearings, and appeals. With that said, not all proceedings are being handled in person.

Do you lose your license immediately after a DUI / OUI in the state of Massachusetts? Yes. In general, it will not be legal for you to drive immediately after an arrest or conviction for a first DUI in Massachusetts (where the local term is OUI, or “Operating Under the Influence”). Arrests and convictions both involve having your license to drive suspended for a set period of time.

A police officer is free to ask anyone—whether you’re in the driver’s seat, passenger seat, or just loitering near a vehicle—to take a breath test. This doesn’t mean you are required to take it, or that the results of such a test would be usable against you in court. There’s a strong argument to be made that a breath test is a search under the Fourth Amendment. Like with any other search, an individual can always consent voluntarily to a breath test.

Failing a breathalyzer test can be a scary moment. Don’t panic. A failed breathalyzer test presents an obstacle in your DUI case, but the existence of the test alone is not proof of your guilt. It will, however, result in several immediate penalties, including:

We frequently hear from individuals who have prior DUI / OUI convictions on their permanent record, and are seeking a way to have them removed. Is it possible? In short, the answer is that this is not easy or likely in most cases. But can a DUI be expunged at all in the state of Massachusetts? Technically, it is possible for any criminal conviction in MA to be expunged if it fits an uncommon and specifically defined set of circumstances.

Q: How Long Does a DUI Stay on Your Record in Massachusetts? A: Individual state laws always determine the length of time that a DUI stays on your record. However, the first thing to understand is that you actually have two individual records where a conviction for DUI will be recorded: your driving record and your criminal record.

If you’ve recently received a notice like this in the mail, you may have questions about its legitimacy or what it might mean for your previous criminal OUI case. First of all, YES, this is an authentic notice from the court system of Massachusetts. It was sent to let you know that you may be entitled to have a prior conviction for OUI in Massachusetts overturned and permanently removed from your record.

Ignition Interlock Devices, or “IIDs,” are essentially personal breathalyzer devices that are intended to prevent a drunk individual from starting a car. An IID is temporarily installed in the motor vehicles of many people recently convicted of OUI so as to require the driver to pass a breath test of their Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) before the vehicle will be able to start.

It’s well-known that Massachusetts OUI penalties already stand among the tougher sets of consequences in the nation, with the highest maximum potential jail time for first offenders among all U.S. states. The penalties for a first offense OUI in Massachusetts could potentially include: