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#93582
A student recently asked us the below question:

"Hello,

Over the past 14 years of driving, I have accumulated a few driving violations. In New England, this included failure to stop, failure to yield, suchargable accident, registration not in possession (it had fallen behind the glove box compartment!). Then due to not paying one of the above tickets, I ended up getting my license revoked, and despite updating my address with the DMV I never received notice of the revocation. One day while driving I was pulled over and discovered my license had been revoked months earlier. I followed the step to have it reinstated, and in addition petitioned this particular ticket to court, with the argument that I had never received any notification of the original revocation. At that court date, I was essentially told that all the DMV needed to prove was that they had sent out the notice, and thus the points were added to my driving record for diving under revocation, which thereby ended up revoking my license a second time, due to three surcharable events! Once I again, I did not receive any notice of the suspension, and this time I was arrested when pulled over. The judge dismissed the case the following morning, and I had the event sealed.

I am concerned that these events will keep me from admission to the bar in Massachusetts. These events all happened between 2008 and 2014. Since then, I had one accident during a massive snowstorm in 2018, and a few radar speeding fines in Brazil from 2018 through 2021. Those fines are automatically generated through radar cameras, as soon as your speed exceeds the speed limit. Other than that, I have had nothing on my driving record in the United States. I have also had a pristine driving record here in Ireland.

Will this effect my admission to the bar?
Is there anyone I can contact in Massachusetts that could help me with this?
What steps might I take in order to show that despite those violations through the years, I am a responsible person and driver."
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 Dave Killoran
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#93584
You should generally be fine as none of these rise to a criminal level. If you are applying to law school, though, I'd be careful with how these are presented, and the help you need can be found with one of our law school admissions consultants. There are a lot of violations there, and how you present those will make a difference.

Good luck!

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