Arkansas Tickets, Points and Defensive Driving Courses

First, the straight answer about courses

Arkansas gives you no statewide right to take a class and have a ticket dismissed. DFA's driver improvement pages cover points, warning letters and hearings, and none of them offers a course that clears a ticket or subtracts points.

Individual courts here sometimes fold a course into how they settle a case. Because that choice belongs to the judge's court and nobody else, the clerk listed on your ticket is who you call, well ahead of the hearing date and before any money changes hands.

Before you pay: questions for the court clerk

Every Arkansas court runs its own practice, so one phone call to the clerk ahead of your court date is the best use of five minutes. Note what you were told, the name of the person who told you and the date, and for anything that matters, ask for written confirmation or a link to the court's site.

If the court has no course option, you are back to the usual two choices: pay the ticket or show up and contest it. Paying puts the points for that violation on your DFA record.

• Is a course an option for the charge I received?
• What does finishing it get me: a dismissal, a smaller fine, or a clean DFA record?
• Which provider and format count, and does an online class qualify?
• When is it due, and what court costs do I pay regardless?
• Will my CDL or a ticket from the last while disqualify me?

Paying versus contesting

Paying ahead of the court date in Arkansas generally ends things with a conviction, and DFA receives the points. Take Little Rock District Court: you can settle up on its website, at the window, through the mail or over the phone, and it notes that if its online ticket search throws an error, you may have to go in person.

If you want to plead not guilty, reach the court printed on the ticket ahead of your date and find out its procedure. In some places the clerk simply sets a trial; in others you first appear at an arraignment.

What a conviction adds: DFA point values

With DFA, a moving violation costs anywhere from 3 to 8 points. The top tier, 8 points, covers reckless driving and going around a school bus that has stopped, according to both the DFA table and the Driver Services regulation. The bottom tier, 3 points, covers careless driving, tailgating, failing to yield and blowing through a stop sign.

The regulation adds racing, fleeing police in a vehicle and leaving an accident scene to the 8 point tier, and gives an accident where you were at fault 3 points. Parking and other non moving violations add nothing.

Suppose you are stopped at 23 over the limit. Paying that ticket puts 5 points on your record. Two more like it and you are past the 14 point hearing line.

• Speeding by no more than 10 mph: 3 points
• Speeding by 11 through 20 mph: 4 points
• Speeding by 21 through 30 mph: 5 points
• Speeding by 31 mph or worse: 8 points

When the points add up: letters and hearings

Once a ticket lifts you to 10 points, DFA mails a warning. Hit 14 or higher and a hearing goes on the calendar automatically. There, a hearing officer walks you through the law and what could happen next, from probation up to a suspension.

Do not miss it. A skipped hearing triggers an automatic suspension. Treat the notice like a court date and bring your record along with proof of any courses or changes in your situation.

How long a points suspension can run

The Driver Services regulation puts a ceiling on each suspension based on your total. DFA counts points over 36 months, looking back from the day the hearing gets scheduled.

Those are maximums. A hearing officer can pick a shorter suspension or probation, so bring anything that shows you are taking your driving seriously.

• From 14 through 17 points: no more than three months
• From 18 through 23 points: no more than six months
• 24 points and above: no more than a year

Does a finished course show up anywhere?

The DFA violations table has an entry coded DDC, for defensive driving course, worth 0 points. So a completed course can be noted on your record, but that page does not say whether it reduces a total or matters at a hearing.

Heading toward 14? Call DFA Driver Services yourself and ask whether a finished course counts for anything at a hearing. Have that answer in hand before you pay for any class.

If the driver is a teen

For a teenager, one ticket can stall the next license stage. Per the State Police reading of Arkansas Code 27-16-704(7), a teen must go half a year without a serious crash or serious moving conviction before a learner's license, and a full year before an intermediate one.

DFA likewise makes the unrestricted license at 18 depend on twelve clean months. A parent should talk to the court before just paying a teen's citation.

Insurance discounts are a separate question

Plenty of insurers offer lower premiums once you complete a defensive driving or accident prevention class. Arkansas licensing pages leave the size of that discount alone; each company sets its own terms on eligibility and length.

A class your insurer accepts might not be one your court accepts, and the other way around. A course you sign up for on your own, without the court's approval, will not change what happens with your ticket.

If you hold a CDL

Commercial license holders have much less room. Under federal rule 49 CFR 384.226, no state may mask a CDL driver's traffic conviction or put it off through deferral, whatever vehicle the driver was in, the family car included.

On top of that, 49 CFR 383.31 makes CDL drivers tell their employer about most traffic convictions within 30 days.