Arkansas Driver Points: Keeping Your License Safe

Start here: how points get on your record

A conviction for a moving violation puts points on your DFA record, and paying a ticket counts as a conviction. The common 3 point offenses include improper turns, not signaling, failing to yield, improper passing or lane use, following too closely, and ignoring signs or signals.

The 8 point tier holds the serious ones: leaving the scene of a crash, fleeing police, racing, passing a school bus that has stopped, and reckless driving. Under the Driver Services regulation an at fault accident is worth 3 points. Non moving violations, like paperwork offenses, are worth none.

• Up to 10 mph over the limit: 3 points
• 11 through 20 mph over: 4 points
• 21 through 30 mph over: 5 points
• 31 mph over or more: 8 points
• Passing a stopped school bus, or reckless driving: 8 points

A note on DWI and the zero on the table

Look up the alcohol and DWI codes on DFA's Violations and Points table and you will see 0 points beside them, along with a major violation label. Do not read that as lenient. Those offenses run through their own suspension rules and administrative hearings, outside the point system entirely.

Anyone facing an alcohol charge should study the DFA DUI/DWI administrative hearing process alongside the court case. The point table is the wrong tool for judging the danger to your license.

If you reach 10 or 14 points

A conviction that lands you at 10 points brings a warning letter from DFA, telling you more violations could mean sanctions. At 14 or more, DFA books a hearing without waiting for you, and a hearing officer explains the law and decides what happens, which may be probation or a suspension.

Driver Services Regulation 1993-9 counts points over 36 months, measured from the day the hearing is scheduled, and caps the suspension by total. The hearing officer may impose less than the cap.

Here is how it adds up. A driver with a 5 point speeding ticket from last year, a 3 point stop sign ticket this spring and a new 8 point reckless driving conviction sits at 16 points, inside the window, and faces a hearing where up to three months of suspension is on the table.

• 14 through 17 points: as much as 3 months
• 18 through 23 points: as much as 6 months
• 24 points or more: as much as a year
• Not showing up to the hearing: automatic suspension

If you are hoping a course will help

DFA publishes no point reduction for any course. Its table does carry a DDC code, short for defensive driving course, at 0 points, which tells you a completed course can show on your record. DFA never says it lowers your total.

Where a course can matter is at a hearing and with your insurance company. Bring the certificate to a points hearing as evidence that your habits have changed, and ask DFA ahead of time whether the hearing officer will take it into account. Separately, ask your insurer whether it gives a discount for the course you have in mind.

Over time: how long things stay on your record

For hearing purposes, the points that count are the ones inside 36 months of the hearing date. The DFA table also shows separate retention codes for different kinds of violations, with major violations kept much longer than routine ones, but the page does not spell those periods out.

Most insurers look at the three year insurance record. A commercial record holds certain information longer, and the history record reaches back to your first license. For the date a particular conviction stops counting, call DFA Driving Records on (501) 683-0984.

Getting a copy of your record

As of October 2026, a three year insurance record costs $8.50 by mail or in person or $12.70 online, and a commercial record costs $10.00 by mail or in person or $14.20 online. The complete history record is $8.50 and is sold only by mail or in person, at Room 1070 of the Ragland Building, 1900 W. 7th St., Little Rock.

When someone else, an employer for example, wants your record, DFA needs a release signed by you that lists your name, date of birth and license number and names whoever will receive it. That release lasts five years unless you cancel it in writing.

Tickets from other states can matter too. The DFA table includes codes for out of state offenses, so a conviction another state reports may appear on your Arkansas record; ask DFA how a specific one was scored.