A third OUI offense in Massachusetts crosses a critical line: it becomes a felony. This isn’t just about harsher penalties—though those are severe. A felony conviction fundamentally changes your legal status and affects your rights for the rest of your life.
Understanding Felony Status
In Massachusetts, first and second OUI offenses are misdemeanors. A third offense is a felony, which means this conviction appears on background checks as a serious crime. It affects employment prospects, housing applications, loan approvals, and even your right to vote while incarcerated.
Federal law prohibits felons from possessing firearms. If you’re convicted of a felony OUI, you lose your Second Amendment rights. For people who hunt, work in law enforcement or security, or simply value gun ownership, this consequence alone is devastating.
The Minimum Mandatory Sentence
For a third OUI conviction, you face a minimum mandatory sentence of 150 days in jail. This is non-negotiable—the judge has no discretion to sentence you to less time. The maximum sentence is five years in state prison.
Most sentences fall somewhere in the middle: 6 to 12 months in a county house of correction, with some portion suspended. You might serve 180 days with the remainder of your sentence suspended, meaning you’re released on probation but that jail time hangs over you if you violate probation.
The fines range from $1,000 to $15,000. Unlike first and second offenses, these aren’t token amounts.
The Eight-Year License Suspension
Your license gets suspended for eight years upon conviction. You must serve two years of that suspension before you become eligible to apply for a hardship license. After four years, you can apply for further exemptions.
If you refused the breath test, that’s a separate five-year administrative suspension. These run consecutively, so you’re looking at five years for the refusal plus eight years for the conviction—thirteen years total before you get your full license back.
You won’t be eligible for any hardship license for seven years (five-year refusal suspension plus two years of the eight-year criminal suspension). Seven years without legal driving privileges is life-changing.
The Ignition Interlock Requirement
When you finally do get a hardship license, it comes with an ignition interlock device. You’ll have this device throughout your hardship period and for an additional two years once your full license is restored.
The device requires regular calibration and maintenance at your expense. It creates detailed logs of every time you attempt to start your car, whether you pass or fail the test. These logs can be used against you if you’re suspected of violating your license restrictions.
License Suspension Calculation Complexity
The math on third offense suspensions confuses even experienced attorneys. Here’s the breakdown: if you refused the breath test, you face a five-year refusal suspension starting immediately. After you’re convicted, you get an eight-year criminal suspension.
These don’t overlap—they stack. But they’re calculated in a complex way. You have to serve at least two years of the eight-year criminal suspension before hardship eligibility. Combined with the five-year refusal suspension, you’re serving seven years before you can even apply for limited driving privileges.
This calculation changes based on whether you took or refused the breath test, how quickly you’re convicted, and various Registry of Motor Vehicles rules. You absolutely need an attorney who understands these timing issues and can accurately tell you when you’ll be eligible to drive again.
Treatment and Probation
Third offense convictions typically come with a suspended sentence and probation for three to five years. You’ll be required to complete inpatient treatment programs and ongoing counseling or support groups.
Violating probation means the court can revoke your suspended sentence and send you to prison to serve the remainder of your original sentence. If you were sentenced to two years with 18 months suspended, violating probation could mean serving that 18 months in addition to any penalties for the probation violation itself.
Employment Consequences
A felony conviction shows up on employment background checks. Many employers have policies against hiring people with felony records, particularly for positions involving driving, security clearances, or working with vulnerable populations.
Professional licenses are at risk too. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, and others with state-issued licenses must report felony convictions to their licensing boards. Depending on the profession and circumstances, the board may suspend or revoke your license.
Why Trial Makes Sense
Given these catastrophic consequences, taking a third OUI to trial is often the right strategy—even if the evidence seems strong. The difference between conviction and acquittal is enormous: prison versus freedom, eight years without a license versus driving privileges, a felony record versus a clean slate.
Experienced OUI defense attorneys can identify weaknesses in the prosecution’s case that aren’t obvious to non-specialists. Maybe the breathalyzer wasn’t properly calibrated. Maybe the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to stop you. Maybe field sobriety tests weren’t administered according to standardization guidelines.
Any of these issues can create reasonable doubt. In Massachusetts, the prosecution must prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt—the highest standard in our legal system. That’s a high bar, and even cases that look bad for the defendant can result in not guilty verdicts when challenged by skilled attorneys.
Get a Specialist
A third offense OUI is too serious for a general practice attorney. You need a Board Certified Specialist in DUI/OUI Defense Law or an attorney who focuses primarily on OUI cases. There are only 2 Board Certified OUI Attorneys in Massachusetts (Attorney James Milligan is one of them). These lawyers understand the complex science of breath and blood testing, know how to cross-examine police officers effectively, and have relationships with expert witnesses who can challenge the prosecution’s evidence.
Don’t approach a third offense OUI passively. The consequences of conviction will affect the rest of your life. Fight the charges with everything you’ve got, using the best legal representation you can find.
Contact Milligan & Higgins for a free consultation or second opinion. Please send us an email: Intake@milliganhiggins.com or call 781-878-1231.
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