Alabama Defensive Driving: Using a Course to Handle a Ticket

Before you do anything: how dismissal works here

Traffic cases in Alabama go through municipal and district courts, and each one decides for itself whether a course is available at all, which drivers are eligible, and what class counts. There is no statewide entitlement.

Orange Beach Municipal Court shows the model clearly. The court is certified to teach National Safety Council classes, and its published rule is that a completed course leads to dismissal of the citation unless the court orders something different.

Before your court date: asking online

In most Alabama district courts the request goes in online at resolve.alacourt.gov, the Online Traffic Resolution system run by the Administrative Office of Courts. Have your ticket number and your birth month and year ready. Your license has to be current and must not be a CDL. Allow as long as 10 business days for a new ticket to appear.

Read your county's wording carefully. In some counties the driving school request comes with a guilty plea, while others let you ask without one. If you are approved, you complete the class, upload proof of completion and pay court costs; the judge then signs the dismissal.

Four counties are listed by the Traffic Service Center that do not offer defensive driving school at all: Pike, Calhoun, Randolph and Bullock.

If you might not qualify

Commercial drivers are the most common group turned away. Orange Beach, for one, says a CDL holder cannot use its defensive driving school.

Timing can also disqualify you. Orange Beach treats a guilty plea as the end of the driving school option, and other courts add conditions of their own. Read whatever notice the court gave you before you mail a payment or sign.

Federal rules add another layer for CDL holders. FMCSA calls it masking when a CDL holder's ticket is dismissed after a plea or a payment, and states may not allow it. Separately, ALEA pulls a CDL for 60 days when a driver racks up two serious offenses in three years, speeding by 15 mph or more being one example.

• Drivers with a CDL, where the court bars them
• Anyone who has already entered a guilty plea
• Drivers whose records fail the court's test, for example a DUI arrest or recent moving violations
• Drivers the prosecutor or judge declines to approve

If the ticket sticks: what it costs in points

ALEA attaches points, under Rule 760-X-1-.07 of the Alabama Administrative Code, to each moving violation conviction. Going 1 to 25 mph over the limit costs 2 points and 26 or more over costs 5. Reckless driving is 6. So is passing a stopped school bus or failing to yield: 5 each.

A few more common values: illegal passing or wrong side driving is 4 points, tailgating is 3, blowing through a stop sign or red light is 3, and the bulk of remaining moving violations are 2.

If the points pile up: the suspension ladder

ALEA counts the points you collect inside any two year window. Once a conviction passes its second anniversary it drops out of the suspension count, though it stays visible on your record.

If you think a suspension notice is wrong, ask for an administrative hearing. After a hearing, the director has power under the rule to adjust how long the suspension runs if the findings back that up.

• 12 to 14 points: suspended 60 days
• 90 days at 15 to 17 points
• 120 days at 18 to 20 points
• 180 days at 21 to 23 points
• 24 or more points: a full year (365 days)

Can a class take points off an Alabama record?

Not under anything ALEA publishes. Neither its point system page nor Rule 760-X-1-.07 offers a course credit. The value of a class here is all in the dismissal: without a conviction, there is nothing for ALEA to put points on.

Say you already carry 8 points from two older tickets and get a third. Taking a class now does nothing for the 8, but if your court lets the class dismiss the new ticket, your total stays at 8 instead of climbing toward 12. If you are close to a threshold, call ALEA's Driver License Division to confirm your count.

If the driver is a teen

For a graduated license holder a ticket costs more than money. ALEA suspends for 60 days after a second moving violation, or after a single conviction for some offenses carrying four points or more.

Plenty of courts accept Alive at 25, a class built for younger drivers. Orange Beach charges $100 for it in citation cases as of October 2026. Ask the court before the hearing whether it will accept the class for your teen's ticket.

After 55: a discount you can earn without a ticket

Two sections of the state code, 27-13-120 and 27-13-121, give a lower insurance premium to anyone 55 or older who finishes an approved motor vehicle accident prevention course. Approved means sponsored by AAA, AARP or the National Safety Council, or a state approved equivalent.

A 2012 bill proposed a six hour course delivered in a classroom or online. Ask the sponsor what the course length and online options are today, and check with your insurer on the length of the discount and any driving record conditions.

Taking a class with no ticket at all

You can sign up for defensive driving purely as a refresher or for an insurance discount. Orange Beach, for example, charges non citation students $40 for Level 1 and $50 for Alive at 25 as of October 2026, and gives you a completion certificate.

File that certificate with your insurance papers. An insurer that offers a discount will ask for it, and with no court case nobody else will send it for you.