In Massachusetts any motor vehicle operator or motorcyclist between the ages of 16 1/2 and 18 is considered a Junior Operator. The Junior Operator Law has several requirements and restrictions that significantly affect the operation of a motor vehicle by a person who has a Junior Operator’s License (JOL).

The basic purpose of this MA law is to provide new drivers supervised opportunities in which to develop good driving skills, while keeping those drivers free of the possible distractions caused by friends under age 18 who are present while the drivers are behind the wheel.

Civil violations, such as not obeying traffic signals or speeding, are considered noncriminal and can usually be settled by paying fines. If you receive a citation from a law enforcement officer for a civil motor vehicle infraction (CMVI), you must pay the required fine or request a hearing to dispute the citation within 20 days. Speeding and other moving violations are considered civil violations.

In general with regards to MA traffic ticket, if you do not respond to a citation within 20 days, you will be found responsible and charged a substantial late payment fee. Continued failure to pay the citation and late fee will cause your license to be suspended. Paying a motor vehicle citation fine means you accept responsibility for that violation. Your driving record will note that you have accepted responsibility for a citation whether you paid the citation by mail, requested a hearing and were ordered by a court to pay the fine, or you failed to respond to the citation within the 20- day period.

All moving violations are tracked in Massachusetts by the RMV and are recorded on your driving record. Moving violations can affect your motor vehicle insurance rate and may cause your license to be suspended.

If you are given a citation for driving above the speed limit, the minimum penalty is a $100 fine. If you are convicted of driving more than ten miles per hour (mph) over the speed limit, you will be fined an additional $10 for each mph you were traveling above the first ten. By law, all fines for speeding violations include a $50 surcharge.

Three responsible findings on speeding violations in a 12-month period will result in your license being suspended for 30 days. If you hold a Junior Operator’s License, which at age 17, it would appear that you do, a 1st offense will result in a 90-day license suspension. Subsequent offenses will result in a one-year license suspension.

The MA RMV and the MA driver's manual both note that Junior Operators (under age 18) face a license suspension of 90 days for a first speeding citation and one year for any subsequent citation. For a first drag racing citation, a Junior Operator license will be suspended for one year. A subsequent drag racing violation will result in a three year suspension.

The Driver’s manual also notes that to reinstate your junior license after a suspension you are required to:

• attend a Driver Attitudinal Retraining course,
• take a new knowledge test, and
• take a new road test
• pay a $500 reinstatement fee

In addition, you may be required to take a State Courts Against Road Rage (SCARR) course. A Junior Operator will only be required to take the SCARR course one time.

If your license is suspended you will be ineligible for a full license until you have completed the period of suspension imposed while operating with a JOL and you reach age 18.

Moving violations such as speeding are surchargeable events according to MA law. Surchargeable events not only threaten your driving privileges, they also affect your private passenger motor vehicle insurance. Using a point system and driving record information, the Merit Rating Board administers a program called the Safe Driver Insurance Plan (SDIP).

Under SDIP, your insurance premium is determined by your driving record. If you are a safe driver over the years, your premium may go down. However, if you are convicted of criminal or civil moving violations, or if you are more than 50 percent at fault in an accident, your insurance rate will increase.

This is general information regarding traffic tickets for JOL drivers in Massachusetts. To find out more about your particular situation contact the court listed on your citation. The clerk of the court is normally able to give information on what your penalties may be and what to expect in court. Since the penalties are harsh for a junior driver's license holder that is convicted of a speeding violation you may want to see about hiring a lawyer if want to try and fight it.