You were stopped on Route 3 or Route 139 or Union Street, you blew into a machine, and now you have a court date and no license. Somebody has already told you “just take the 24D.” You do not know what that is, whether you can get it, or whether it means you have an OUI on your record forever.

What is a 24D disposition?

MGL c.90 section 24D is the Massachusetts first-offender OUI disposition. If the court grants it, you consent to probation for not more than two years, assignment to a driver alcohol education program administered by the Department of Public Health, and if the court deems it necessary, additional alcohol or controlled substance treatment.

In exchange, the statute sets your license suspension at no less than forty-five nor more than ninety days. Compare that to a straight first-offense OUI conviction without 24D: under c.90 section 24(1)(c)(1), the registrar may not reinstate until one year after the date of conviction. The court may also require a minimum of thirty hours of public service as a condition of probation.

If you were under 21 when the offense was committed, the statute sets the suspension at 210 days, not 45 to 90, and assigns you to a program designed specifically for young drivers. For a person aged 17 to 21 whose blood alcohol was .20 or higher, the statute assigns the 14-day second offender in-home program.

Who is eligible for 24D? The ten-year question answered

Sources disagree about this constantly. The statute does not.

The second paragraph of section 24D sets out two eligible groups. The first is any person who has never been convicted of OUI or assigned to an alcohol or controlled substance education, treatment or rehabilitation program because of a like offense.

The second is the “second chance” 24D. The section shall also apply to any person convicted of or charged with OUI who has been convicted or assigned to such a program because of a single like offense 10 years or more before the date of the commission of the offense for which he is to be sentenced, once in his lifetime.

So: yes, a prior OUI more than ten years old can still permit a 24D disposition. Four conditions matter. It must be a single prior like offense, not two. The gap is measured from the prior conviction or program assignment to the date of commission of the new offense, not to your court date. It is available once in your lifetime. And the ten years must be a full ten; nine years and ten months is not ten years.

The RMV’s first-offense hardship criteria sheet states the same rule from the licensing side: a hardship license is available for second-chance 24D assignments, providing the prior OUI finding or conviction is over 10 years from the most recent incident date.

The hard stop. Section 24D shall not apply to any person who caused serious personal injury to or the death of another person during the events that gave rise to the complaint. That exclusion is absolute.

The trap on the far side. The statute also provides that if, after a second-chance 24D disposition, you are convicted of another OUI, all prior convictions or program assignments shall be counted for purposes of sentencing. The ten-year lookback does not protect you twice.

Is a 24D a conviction? CWOF vs. conviction

Section 24D applies to a person convicted of or charged with OUI. Both routes exist, and the difference matters.

Many 24D dispositions are structured as a continuance without a finding, a CWOF. You admit facts sufficient for a finding of guilt, the court continues the case without entering a guilty finding, you complete probation, and the case is dismissed. A successfully completed CWOF is not a guilty conviction, which can matter for employment and licensing questions that ask specifically about convictions.

But do not mistake that for a clean slate for OUI purposes. Read the eligibility language again: it excludes anyone previously assigned to an alcohol or controlled substance education program because of a like offense. A 24D CWOF is an assignment to a program. For every future OUI charge, for the rest of your life, you have one. There is no second first offense.

A 24D is a good outcome in many cases. It is not nothing.

What does a 24D actually cost?

Program fee. The statute directs DPH to set a fee schedule and provides that until DPH establishes one, the fee shall be two hundred dollars. Confirm the current amount with your program; the statutory $200 is a default, not a published current price.

Probation fee. An additional fee of two hundred and fifty dollars shall be paid to the chief probation officer by each person placed in a program under this section.

If you cannot pay. Both fees can be waived or reduced on indigency. The statute requires an affidavit of indigency or inability to pay filed with the court within ten days of the date of disposition, confirmation by the probation officer, and a written finding by the court. Ten days is a short window. Ask about it at disposition, not a month later.

Ignition interlock. The RMV’s criteria sheets state that interlock devices are required for second 24D charges and for certain first offenders who, at the time of arrest, had a blood alcohol concentration at or above .15.

Failure to pay has teeth. Failure to pay the fees, unless excused, shall constitute sufficient basis for a finding that the person has failed to satisfactorily comply with the program.

The hardship license question, resolved

This is the other point sources get wrong, and the confusion comes from mixing up two different situations.

If you get a 24D disposition: there is no waiting period. The statute is explicit. A defendant may immediately upon entering a program apply to the registrar for consideration of a limited license for hardship purposes. The registrar, at his discretion, may issue such license under such terms as he may prescribe, and any such license shall be valid for an identical 12 hour period, 7 days a week.

The practical gate is proof. The RMV’s criteria sheet requires documented enrollment on program letterhead, no evidence of any operation of a motor vehicle since the suspension took effect, completion of other active suspension periods, an employer letter on letterhead not more than 30 days old stating your need and work hours, and documentation about public transportation.

If you are convicted without a 24D: there are two waiting periods, and that is where “3 months vs. 6 months” comes from. Both numbers are right. They are different licenses. Under c.90 section 24(1)(c)(1), on a first-offense conviction the revocation runs one year, and after three months from the date of conviction you may apply for a hardship license for employment or educational purposes, limited to an identical twelve hour period every day; after six months you may apply for a general hardship license on a limited basis.

Either way the registrar may, in his discretion, issue such license. Nobody can promise you one. Mass.gov puts it plainly: although you may meet all requirements, issuance of a hardship license is only granted at the reasonable discretion of the RMV, based on the facts of the case.

One more suspension to track. If you refused the breath test, that suspension is separate and runs first. Multiple suspensions resulting from an alcohol-related violation are served consecutively, and a refusal for a driver with no prior alcohol offenses is 180 days.

How does 24D play out in the South Shore District Courts?

A 24D is not an application you mail in. It is a disposition entered by a judge in the court where your case is pending, and it runs through that court’s Probation Department: the statute requires you to surrender your Massachusetts license to the probation department of that court.

On the South Shore that means one of these buildings:

• Hingham District Court, 28 George Washington Blvd., (781) 749-7000: Hanover, Hingham, Hull, Norwell, Rockland, Scituate.

• Brockton District Court, 215 Main St., (508) 587-8000: Abington, Bridgewater, Brockton, East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Whitman.

• Quincy District Court, 400 Crown Colony Drive, (617) 471-1650: Braintree, Cohasset, Holbrook, Milton, Quincy, Randolph, Weymouth.

• Plymouth District Court, 52 Obery St., (508) 747-8400: Duxbury, Halifax, Hanson, Kingston, Marshfield, Pembroke, Plymouth, Plympton.

• Stoughton District Court, 1288 Central St., (781) 344-2131: Avon, Canton, Sharon, Stoughton.

All five are open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Hingham, Brockton, Quincy and Plymouth each run an Adult Drug Court; Brockton also runs a Veterans’ Treatment Court, and Quincy and Plymouth each run a Mental Health Court. If your case is driven by something larger than one night, eligibility for those sessions is a conversation to have early rather than after a plea.

If this is not your first OUI, note that a third or subsequent OUI within ten years of a prior conviction is expressly listed in MGL c.276 section 58A as an offense on which the Commonwealth may move for pretrial detention based on dangerousness.

A note about this time of year

Holiday impaired-driving enforcement on the South Shore is documented, and it is local.

Hanover Police published its own Thanksgiving-Eve notice for November 26, 2025, stating that the department was adding staffing and running targeted patrols that evening and working with local establishments and the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission on liquor-law compliance.

Statewide, the ABCC announced “Operation Safe Holidays” on November 25, 2025, describing alcohol-licensee enforcement with municipal police from Thanksgiving Eve through New Year’s Eve.

State Police enforcement around the holidays is a documented pattern rather than something we can point you to a current press release for. The Commonwealth’s FFY24 Highway Safety Annual Report describes State Police running sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols concentrated on Friday and Saturday nights, but making exceptions for major holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. We have not located a 2025 or 2026 State Police announcement of specific Thanksgiving patrols, and we will not tell you one exists when we cannot cite it. What we can tell you is that the pattern is real, that Thanksgiving Eve falls on Wednesday, November 25, 2026, and that it is reliably one of the heaviest enforcement nights of the year in these towns.

If you have a first OUI on the South Shore

Sofio Law, PLLC handles OUI and other criminal defense matters in Hingham, Brockton, Quincy, Plymouth and Stoughton District Courts, from an office at 100 Ledgewood Place, Suite 201, Rockland, MA 02370.

Whether a 24D is the right disposition, or whether the case should be fought instead, depends on the stop, the testing, the officer’s observations and your record. Those are things to look at before you agree to anything.

The initial consultation is free and lasts 30 minutes. Call (774) 801-9774 or email info@sofio.law.

This post is general information about Massachusetts law and RMV practice, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Outcomes depend on the individual facts of each case, and both statutory eligibility and RMV hardship decisions are case-specific and in part discretionary. Fees, program requirements and RMV criteria change; confirm current requirements with the court’s Probation Department and the RMV before relying on them.