Massachusetts Surcharge Appeal Lawyers

If you were aggrieved by an automobile insurance surcharge pursuant to the Massachusetts Safe Driver Insurance Plan, you have the right to appeal said surcharge, within thirty (30) days, to the Board of Appeal of the Massachusetts Division of Insurance. If, after a hearing, it is determined that you were not more than fifty percent (50%) at fault in the accident, the surcharge will be vacated, meaning that it will be removed from your driving record and you will receive a credit for any amounts paid as a result of the surcharge.

Surcharges in Massachusetts can cost thousands and result in the suspension of your driver’s license or right to operate. It is important to consider this when deciding whether or not to appeal.

Under a new safe driving law, which goes into effect in October of 2010, the Mass. RMV will be requiring drivers who accumulate 3 surchargeable events (at fault accidents or citations such as speeding tickets) to take the National Safety Council Driver Re-Training Course, to avoid an indefinite license suspension. Drivers who do not take the class will have their licenses suspended unless and until they successfully complete the NSC driving class. There is a 2 year look-back period, whereby the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles will examine the driving record to see if there are 3 qualifying violations within the 24 month period.

This new 3 surchargeable event suspension requirement will replace the requirement to take the NSC class when a driver has accumulated 5 surchargeable events within any 3 year period.

Under a new law which goes into effect in October, the Registry will suspended the licenses of drivers under 18 years of age who are found using cell phones or mobile devices while operating a motor vehicle on any public way. This restriction also applies to hands-free cell phones. A junior operator who violates the new cell phone will have his license or permit suspended for 60 days for a first offense, for 180 days for a second offense and for 1 year for a third or subsequent violation. The Registry of Motor Vehicles will impose a reinstatement fee and require the violator to complete the National Safety Council Alive at 25 Driver Re-training Program and take a full written and road test. In addition to any reinstatement fee, the Mass. RMV will collect a surcharge of $50 upon license reinstatement. Half of the $50.00 surcharge will go to the Spinal Cord Injury Trust Fund.

Those charged with a violation of the Massachusetts Cell Phone Law may avoid responsibility by showing that the cell phone was used for emergency purposes, including, but not limited to, an emergency call to a police department, law enforcement agency, health care provider, fire department or other emergency services provider.

Using blackberries, pagers, cell phones, iphones, laptop computers, and other wireless devices is also prohibited while operating a vehicle. It has been reported that violations of this law will not result in an insurance surcharge or be counted as a “surchargeable event” for license suspension purposes. However, the version of the Bill that is available on-line states that opposite, that violations will be counted. Violations will be punished by a fine of $100 for a first offense, of $250 for a second offense and $500 for a third or subsequent offense. There is no exception for police or law enforcement officers.

A violation of the new Massachusetts anti-texting law which results in a motor vehicle accident will constitute reckless driving, which is a criminal offense in Massachusetts and it carries an automatic license suspension of at least 60 days.

This summary is based on Massachusetts House Bill 4795.

If you receive 5 surchargable events (any combination of moving violations and/or accidents) in any 3 year period, you will be required to take the Driver Retraining Program offered by the National Safety Council.  The Registry will suspend your license indefinitely until you successfully complete the course. Also, if you receive 7 surchargable events in any 3 year period, you license will be automatically suspended for 60 days. Although the RMV claims that getting a hardship license is not possible, I have obtained hardship relief and full license reinstatements by appealing these 7 surchargable events suspensions to the RMV Board of Appeal.

Anyone who receives a 5 or 7 surchargable events suspension has a right to attend a hearing which will held only at the following RMV Customer Service Centers located in Brockton, Worcester, Springfield, Lawrence, and 630 Washington St., Boston, MA, 4th Floor. The only issue that will be addressed at this hearing is the accuracy of the record. If you believe that an error has been made and you wish to challenge the record, you will need to present documentation to demonstrate that you were found not guilty or not responsible for a reported motor vehicle violation and/or not at fault for a surchargeable accident which appears on the suspension notice. If your record is correct, you may avoid the hearing process by registering with the National Safety Council at 1-800-215-1581.

If you are found to be responsible for five or more reported events, you will be required, by law, to attend and pass a Driver Retraining Program within 90 days of the hearing date listed on the suspension letter sent by the Registry. Failure on your part to complete this requirement, as stated in G.L. c. 175 § 113B will in the suspension of your 1icense/right to operate all motor vehicles in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the effective date mentioned above, without further notice and it will remain suspended until such time as you attend and pass the Driver Retraining Program. The program is conducted by the National Safety Council and you should register for this program by calling 1-800-215-1581.

These 5 and 7 surchargeable event suspensions show why it is important to keep your Massachusetts Driving Record clean. If you need help with this, contact a surcharge appeal lawyer at 508-656-0057. If you have received a letter from the Registry regarding a 60 day 7 surchargeable event suspension, call us for a free consultation and record review. A lawyer may be able to prevent your license from being suspended, shorten the suspension, or get you a hardship license.

A successful physician was cited for defective equipment and travelling 50 MPH in a 30 MPH zone. He received a $235.00 traffic ticket and, if found responsible, he would have been required to pay thousands in the form of increased insurance premiums over the next several years.

The Doctor contacted Massachusetts Traffic Ticket Attorney Paul B. Watkins who represented him at the Clerk-Magistrate hearing.  The police officer who wrote the ticket received specialized training in traffic enforcement and he was assigned to a traffic unit, where officers are directed to focus on speeding citations and motor vehicle enforcement. Nevertheless, through effective legal representation, the physician was found “not responsible.” This means that he will keep his Massachusetts driving record clean and not have to pay an insurance surcharge for speeding and defective equipment, two offenses which count towards 5 and 7 surchargable event license suspensions.

Although results cannot be guaranteed in every situation, this case shows how hiring a skilled Massachusetts Traffic Lawyer such as Paul Watkins can help you maintain a clean driving record and avoid a potential license suspension. 

In many situations where the police are called to an automobile accident, the investigating police officer may issue a traffic ticket to one of the parties involved in the accident, based on the results of the accident investigation. For example, if the officer determines that the driver of one of the vehicles failed to stop at a red light, failed to stay within marked lanes, or was following too close, the officer may issue a citation to the driver. If this happens, it is important to appeal both the accident surcharge and the traffic ticket. A Massachusetts Surcharge Appeal Lawyer may be able to use the not responsible finding on the traffic violation as evidence at your Board of Appeal hearing to show that you should not be surcharged for the accident.

For example, in the case of DiScipio v. Board of Appeals, a Worcester Superior Court Judge held that a not responsible finding on a traffic ticket for making an illegal left-hand turn across traffic was sufficient to overcome the presumption that the driver was more than 50% at fault, because he was turning across traffic. The surcharge was vacated, allowing DiScipio to keep his driving record clean and saving him a lot of money on his car insurance.

If you have been involved in a car accident, you should take the following steps to protect yourself from a potential insurance surcharge and having to pay a deductible. First, make sure to note the time, date, and location of the accident. Secondly, immediately get the license plate(s) of the other car(s) involved in the collision. Third, try to get identifying information of the witnesses. At the very least, get their license plate numbers. If you believe that you were not at fault in the accident, you should insist that the police not only respond to the accident, but also investigate it. A police report can be very helpful when it comes to determining who is at fault in the accident. Fourth, if you can take photos with your cell phone, or if you have a camera available, you should take photographs of the vehicles. Be careful not to endanger yourself when photographing vehicles, especially if the cars are in a dangerous area. You should write a narrative regarding how the accident happened and draw a diagram while the details of the accident are fresh in your mind.

You should probably not have much conversation with the other driver involved in the accident. The other driver in the accident can use anything that you say against you. If the other driver makes any statements regarding how the accident happened, you should take note of them. Some cell phones such as the iphone have apps which you can use to record accident information.

You should ask to see the other driver’s license and registration and copy this information instead of relying on the other driver to verbally recite his or her information. Copying it from the RMV documents insures that it is accurate and the other driver is not giving you false information.  Drivers may try to do this if they do not have a valid license or insurance. You should ask the other driver for his or her telephone number, as this is not listed on his or her license or registration. If you are at fault, you may be able to work out a deal with the other driver whereby you pay for his or her damage directly “out of pocket,” and no insurance claim is filed. You have to be careful doing this, but it may save you some money.

If you have a Massachusetts Driver’s License, you can be surcharged for out of state accidents, just as if they happened in Massachusetts. When your insurance company gets notified of an at fault accident, no matter where it occurred, that accident is counted against you pursuant to the Massachusetts Safe Driver Insurance Plan. This means that the accident will cost you just as much as if it happened here in Massachusetts. Insurance companies notify the Massachusetts Merit Rating Board, which is a state agency which maintains driving records, of out of state accidents just as they do for accidents that occur here. Therefore, it is a misconception that you will not receive a costly insurance surcharge for accidents which do not happen in Massachusetts. If someone files a property damage or personal injury claim, the insurance company will find out about the accident. If the insurance company believes that one of the 19 standards of fault apply, and that you were more than fifty percent (50%) at fault in the accident, you will receive a surcharge, no matter where the accident happened.

I spoke with a truck driver today who is having a very difficult time finding employment. He has a Class A Massachusetts driver’s license and years of experience driving tractor trailer units across the country. He has been looking for work and several prospective employers have rejected him because of his driving record, which reflects some traffic tickets and accidents, which do not involve a commercial motor vehicle.

The driver has told me that trucking companies scrutinize applicant’s driving records and they will not hire anyone who does not have a clean record. Apparently, many companies require three (3) years of incident free driving as a condition of hiring.  The driver contacted me to see if he could have items removed from his record. Unfortunately, this is impossible. Payment of a traffic citation or appealing a citation and losing means that it will remain on your record and it can be used against you.  At fault car accidents also permanently appear on your Massachusetts driving record. The only way to clear or remove these from your record is to appeal the accident surcharge and succeed at the appeal hearing or successfully fight your traffic citation. A surcharge appeal attorney can help you with this process. Attorneys Jesse C. Cohen and Paul B. Watkins have excellent track records in this area of law.

This situation is an example of the potential consequences of not fighting a Massachusetts accident surcharge or traffic citation. This truck driver is now without employment. Had he fought traffic tickets and accident surcharges when he received them, he would probably have a job now.  Hiring a lawyer and taking time off from work is a small price to pay when compared with the consequences of a Massachusetts traffic ticket or motor vehicle accident surcharge.

You should not delay filing  your traffic citation or motor vehicle accident appeal. If your appeal is received too late, it may be denied and you may lose your right to contest your accident surcharge or traffic citation. If you have filed too late, please contact me. I may be able to get your a late hearing before the courts or the Board of Appeal of the Mass. Division of Insurance.

As part of its Safe Driver Insurance Plan, Massachusetts has established a merit based rating system which requires motor vehicle insurers to impose a surcharge on insured drivers whom they determine to be more than 50% at fault in a motor vehicle collision. An insured driver, aggrieved by the imposition of a surcharge, may file a written complaint with the Board of Appeal of the Massachusetts Division of Insurance.  After a hearing on application of the surcharge, the Board may affirm or vacate the surcharge. The insured has a statutory right to appeal the Board’s decision to the Superior Court pursuant to the State Administrative Procedure Act.

If the Board of Appeal finds against you at a surcharge appeal hearing, you have the legal right to appeal the Board’s decision to Superior Court. Generally, however, no new evidence can be introduced at the Superior Court level and the court’s review is confined to the record of evidence presented at the Board of Appeal accident surcharge hearing. You, as the appellant, will bear the burden of demonstrating the decision’s invalidity. The decision of the Board of Appeal must be affirmed if supported by substantial evidence, that is, such evidence that a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Also, the reviewing court is required to give due weight to the Board’s agency’s experience, technical competence, specialized knowledge, and the discretionary authority conferred upon it by law. A court may not dispute the Board’s choice between two conflicting views, even though the court would justifiably have made a different choice had the matter come before in the first instance. Unless the Board of Appeal hearing officer misapplied the standards of fault or made some other legal error, in determining that you were more than fifty percent (50%) at fault in the motor vehicle accident, the surcharge will be upheld. Under these legal standards, it is very difficult to reverse a surcharge appeal at the superior court level and the vast majority of such surcharge appeals fail. It is for this reason that legal representation at the Board of Appeal level is very important. You have the right to be represented by a lawyer and that representation can make the difference between winning the appeal, keeping your driving record clean, and preventing your insurance rates from rising or losing the appeal and being forced to pay more for car insurance.