MA DUI Lifetime Look Back Rule
Posted by Jason Chan on Wed, Aug 04, 2010 @ 04:31 PM
Picture taken by Ian Britton: http://www.ianbritton.co.uk/
The penalties for DUI offenses have become more serious over the years. Essentially, in order for the Commonwealth to figure out what number DUI offense a DUI offender should be charged with, the state “looks back” at the DUI offender’s record. Since 2002, the DUI rules of “looking back” at a person’s DUI record have changed making the punishments for DUI more severe.
The DUI rules prior to 2002 would only look at the DUI offender’s to see if the DUI offender had any DUI’s for the last ten years. Now for the purposes of counting DUI offenses, the DUI laws counts CWOFs and convictions the same way. (To learn more about CWOFS http://attorneychan.wordpress.com/?s=cwof Under the DUI ten year look back rule, the state would look at the DUI offender’s record and only count DUI offenses that occurred in the last ten years. So for example, under the old DUI rules, a 50 year old DUI offender has one DUI on his record when he was 25. Under the old DUI rules, the DUI offender would be charged with a DUI first offense.
After 2002, the DUI rules no longer just “look back” ten years in the DUI offender’s record. Now, no matter how much time has lapsed, all the DUIs on a person’s record are counted. So back to our example of the 50 year old DUI offender with one DUI on his record when he was 25. Under the new DUI rules, the DUI offender would be charged with a DUI second offense.
This change in the DUI rules is very significant because the penalties for DUI become more severe depending on the number of the DUI offense. To find out more information regarding the different DUI offenses, you can visit the DUI index. http://www.attorneychan.com/dui/index.html.
For more information: visit www.attorneychan.com or contact me at 508-808-8902