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Driving Record Points

The system most states use to score moving violations against a driver's record, with a licence suspension when the total crosses a threshold - and an interstate compact that makes an out-of-state ticket count at home.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

What it means

Most states assign a number of points to each moving violation - speeding, running a signal, following too closely, and so on - and record them against the driver's licence when the ticket is paid or the driver is found responsible. When the points accumulated within a set period cross a threshold, the state suspends or restricts the licence, usually after a warning stage. Points typically expire after a set time, and some states remove points for completing an approved driver-improvement course. A few states have no point system and instead suspend for a set number of convictions.

Paying a ticket is a conviction for this purpose. The consequence that surprises most drivers is not the fine but the points, and the further consequence is the insurance premium, which insurers set from the driving record they obtain from the state. The points-and-insurance cost of a ticket often exceeds the fine many times over, which is the arithmetic behind contesting tickets that are not worth contesting on the fine alone.

A ticket in another state generally follows the driver home. Under an interstate compact adopted by most states, the state where the offence occurred reports the conviction to the driver's home state, which treats it as if it had happened there under its own point rules; a separate compact means a licence suspended in one member state cannot be replaced by simply applying in another. Commercial drivers are subject to a stricter, federally defined set of disqualifying offences on top of any state points.

Where this comes from

Point schedules, thresholds, expiry and the suspension procedure are each state's own law and vary widely. Interstate reporting operates under the Driver License Compact and the Non-Resident Violator Compact, which are agreements among states enacted in each member state's statutes rather than federal law. The federal disqualification rules for commercial drivers are at 49 C.F.R. § 383.51.

When people hire a lawyer for this

The time to ask is before paying a ticket, not after, since payment is the conviction that creates the points. A lawyer or, in many places, a traffic-court clerk can tell you whether a reduced charge or a driver-improvement course is available - and for a driver already near the threshold, or a commercial driver, one more paid ticket can be the licence.

Find a lawyer for this in your state

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Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, civil legal aid programmes provide free help with many of these problems: civil legal aid programmes by state.

Related free reference tools: statute of limitations for a personal-injury claim, by state, quoted from each state's official text - part of LawyerLand's legal reference tools.