Leaving the Scene Defense Attorney Massachusetts

Leaving the scene charges in Massachusetts range from a misdemeanor property damage complaint to a felony carrying a one year mandatory minimum upon conviction. We defend people charged with leaving the scene, and with other motor vehicle offenses throughout Greater Boston and Eastern Massachusetts.

Being charged with leaving the scene of an accident is serious, and the decisions you make in the first days after a charge matter. We have defended people facing leaving the scene charges for over 30 years in Massachusetts courts.

If you are reading this, you may have received a summons in the mail, a call from a detective, or a citation that arrived days after a moment you barely remember. Many people charged with leaving the scene did not think they were doing anything wrong when they drove away.

Some never realized there had been any contact at all. Others stopped, looked around, saw no one hurt, and left without giving their information. We represent good people who have had a really bad day, and a leaving the scene charge is very often exactly that.

Two features of Massachusetts law catch people off guard. The duty to stop applies whether or not the collision was your fault, and stopping alone is not enough: you have to actually give your name, your home address, and your vehicle's registration number.

Massachusetts recognizes three leaving the scene offenses, based on whether the collision caused property damage, personal injury, or a death.

This is the least serious of the three and by far the most commonly charged. It applies when you knowingly collide with or otherwise cause damage to another vehicle or other property, then go away without stopping and making yourself known.

Unlike the injury and death offenses, it does not require that the collision happen on a public road. A parking lot, a driveway, or a private garage can all be the setting.

Fault is not the question, but the Commonwealth must prove the collision damaged someone else's property, not just your own. It is a misdemeanor, and in the right case it can be resolved with a continuance without a finding.

Our guide to the property damage statute walks through its text in detail.

This offense applies when you knowingly collide with or otherwise cause injury to a person, then go away without stopping and making yourself known. The collision must happen on a public way, or in a place where the public has a right of access or is invited in.

The knowledge requirement is specific. The Commonwealth must prove you knew you had struck or injured a person, not simply that you felt or heard something.

It is a misdemeanor. A judge can impose probation rather than jail, but by statute the case cannot be continued without a finding or placed on file. That shapes the defense strategy from the very first day.

Our guide to the personal injury statute walks through its text in detail.

This is a felony, and it is prosecuted in the Superior Court rather than the District Court. It carries an element the other two do not: the Commonwealth must prove you went away to avoid prosecution or to evade apprehension.

If convicted, Massachusetts law imposes a mandatory minimum of one year, which cannot be suspended and carries no probation or parole until it is served. Like the injury offense, it cannot be continued without a finding or placed on file.

If the Commonwealth also alleges that the driving itself caused the death, a separate charge of motor vehicle homicide can follow. Our guide to the statute for leaving the scene after a death walks through its text in detail.

If someone died, you are carrying something enormously heavy, whatever the facts turn out to be. We will be straight with you about what the Commonwealth has to prove, and we will be with you through every step.

We know you are already thinking about what happens next. The answer depends heavily on which of the three offenses you are facing.

Leaving After Property damage. A fine of $20 to $200, imprisonment of two weeks to two years, or both. The two week minimum applies only if a judge imposes jail time, and probation is available.

Leaving After Personal injury. Imprisonment of six months to two years and a fine of $500 to $1,000. The six month minimum applies only if a judge imposes jail time, and probation is available, but the case cannot be continued without a finding or placed on file.

Leaving After A Death. State prison for two and a half to ten years, or a jail or house of correction for one to two and a half years, and in either case a fine of $1,000 to $5,000. If convicted, Massachusetts law imposes a mandatory minimum of one year.

Every conviction also reaches your license. The Registry must revoke it unless the judge recommends otherwise, and even with that recommendation the Registry keeps the power to revoke. No appeal or motion for a new trial puts the revocation on hold.

After a first conviction, the wait before a new license can issue is 60 days for property damage, one year for personal injury, and three years for a death. After a subsequent conviction it grows to one year for property damage within three years, two years for personal injury, and ten years for a death.

A conviction also becomes part of your criminal record and your driving history. For anyone who is not a U.S. citizen, any plea or disposition should be reviewed for immigration consequences before it is accepted.

A charge is not a conviction. Many of these cases turn on knowledge and identification, and both are usually built on inference rather than direct proof.

Right now it may feel like there is nothing to argue, especially if you know you were there. There very often is.

You did not know. Knowledge is an element of every leaving the scene offense. If the contact was light or the conditions made it hard to notice, the Commonwealth may not be able to prove you knew.

You were not the driver. A plate number and a registration record identify a car, not a person. The Commonwealth must prove who was operating it.

No damage or injury to someone else. The collision must have damaged another person's property or injured another person. Damage only to your own vehicle, or damage that was already there, does not meet that requirement.

You were not an actor in the collision. The law applies when your driving is at least part of the cause. It does not reach a driver who was only a passive participant, such as when a pedestrian walks into a car that is already stopped.

The location element is missing. The injury and death offenses require a public way or a place open to the public. A truly private location can defeat those charges, although not a property damage charge.

You did not leave to avoid prosecution. For the felony, the Commonwealth must prove why you left. Shock, panic, or leaving to get help are not the same as leaving to avoid being caught.

Unlawfully obtained evidence. If police questioned you without the required warnings, or obtained evidence through an unlawful search, that evidence can be challenged and may be suppressed.

Every case is different. Call (978) 969-2890 to talk through your situation and your options.

Every leaving the scene case comes down to a short list of facts: who was driving, whether that driver knew about the collision, and what the driver did next. Each has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and each is often less certain than the police report makes it sound.

For a property damage charge, the Commonwealth must prove you knew you had collided with or damaged someone else's property. For an injury charge, it must prove you knew you had struck or injured a person.

Light contact, engine or road noise, music, a blind spot, rain, or darkness can all mean a driver genuinely never realized anything happened. The amount of damage matters mainly as evidence of whether a driver would have noticed.

Because the driver is gone by the time police arrive, these cases often start with a plate number and a registration lookup. That identifies a car and its owner. It does not prove who was behind the wheel.

The Commonwealth has to prove you were the operator. Owners lend cars to family members, coworkers, and friends every day, and a plate glimpsed in moving traffic or at night is easy to misread.

The law asks for more than stopping. You must stop and actually give your name, your home address, and your vehicle's registration number, and offering to provide them or waiting to be asked is not enough.

The information goes to the person whose property was damaged or who was hurt, if that is reasonably possible. If not, it can go to someone acting for them, a police officer, or another person at or near the scene.

Believing the other driver already knew who you were is not a defense. But the rule works in both directions: if you did stop and give that information, the Commonwealth cannot prove this element.

If you have just been arrested, released, or received a summons, take a breath. Here is what you need to do right now.

● Don't talk to police without a lawyer present, even if a detective calls and says they only want your side of the story
● Don't discuss your case with anyone except your attorney
● Don't contact the other driver, the property owner, or anyone who was hurt about the incident until you have spoken with a lawyer
● Talk to a lawyer before filing a crash report. Massachusetts requires a written crash report to the Registry and the local police within five days when anyone is killed or injured, or when damage to any one vehicle or property exceeds $1,000. If a charge is pending or possible, that report asks you to name yourself as the driver
● Talk to us before repairing your vehicle, because its condition, including any damage that was already there, can be important evidence
● Preserve evidence that might help, such as dashcam footage, phone location history, receipts, texts, and the names of anyone who was with you or has driven your car
● Write down everything you remember while it is fresh: the route, the time, the weather and lighting, what you heard or felt, and why you left
● Don't post about the incident or your case on social media
● Follow all court orders and conditions of release

Contact an experienced Massachusetts criminal defense attorney. Call(978) 969-2890. Phones answered 24/7 by a real person.

Acting early gives your lawyer the best chance to find video before it is deleted and to reach witnesses while their memories are fresh.