Defensive Driving in Delaware: What the Course Earns You

First question: will a course help with this ticket?

Not directly. In its traffic questions and answers, the Justice of the Peace Court lists three ways a ticket ends: paying a voluntary assessment, going to trial, or probation before judgment. A driving course is not one of them. The court itself does not give points; the DMV adds them based on the conviction.

The course's value in Delaware is the 3 point credit with the DMV and the insurance discount, and you get both whether or not a ticket is pending.

Your options for the ticket itself

The Voluntary Assessment Center wants full payment within 30 days of the ticket. If your ticket is an eligible mail-in one, courtpay.delaware.gov lets you split it into no more than three installments across 90 days, provided you arrange that inside the first 30 days.

Ways to pay: a card or e-check on the web; Discover, Visa or Mastercard over the phone at 302-739-6911; a payment kiosk at a courthouse; the counter at any Justice of the Peace criminal court; or the mail. For mail, make the check or money order out to State of Delaware and address it to State of Delaware Voluntary Assessment Center, P.O. Box 7039, Dover, DE 19903. Partial payments are not accepted.

Lost the ticket? Call the Voluntary Assessment Center on 302-739-6911. Some towns, Newark, Dewey Beach and Rehoboth Beach among them, run their own Alderman's Court, and tickets written there go to that court instead, so read the court name printed on yours.

Here is the speeding break in practice. Suppose you are ticketed for 12 mph over and it is your first speeding ticket in three years. Settle it with the assessment center, or with the Alderman's Court if that is where it was written, and as a Class D holder you collect no points.

Your options in court: probation before judgment

This route exists only if you go to court, you are eligible, and both the court and the prosecutor agree. Two things rule you out: an earlier conviction for this same offense, or any grant of probation before judgment within the last five years.

Satisfy the conditions and the case closes without a conviction, so nothing reaches your point total. Commercial license holders cannot use this route, even when they were cited in their own car.

How the 3 point credit actually works

When the DMV calculates penalties, it may treat a completed approved course as a 3 point credit. That credit applies to future violations for administrative purposes only. It does not delete or shrink points already on your record.

It also leaves alone the point total that employers and insurers look at. The credit lasts three years from your finish date, so the smart time to take the course is while your record is quiet, well ahead of any warning letter.

Over the next two years: how Delaware counts points

Points count at full value for 12 months after the violation date, then at half value for 12 more, and the DMV acts on your calculated total within that 24 month span. Some common values: running a red light or a stop sign is 3; speeding costs 2 when you are under 10 mph over, 4 from 10 through 14 over, and 5 at 15 or more over; reckless or aggressive driving is 6.

An advisory letter goes out at 8 calculated points. At 12 you have 90 days to finish a behavior modification or attitudinal driving course or you face a 2 month suspension. At 14 the suspension is 4 months, and every 2 further points adds 2 months, topping out at 12 months at 22 points.

• 8 points: you get an advisory letter
• 12 points: behavior modification course required
• 14 points: 4 months suspended
• 22 points: 12 months suspended

If the DMV orders a course: behavior modification

This is the mandatory side. Three situations require the behavior modification (attitudinal driving) course: reaching 12 points, being convicted of aggressive driving, and getting reinstated after many kinds of suspension. Expect at least 8 hours, a $100 fee paid directly to the provider, and classes in each of the three counties. The provider tells the DMV electronically within 48 hours that you finished.

Big speeding tickets work like this. Convicted at 25 to 29 over? You face 1 month suspended, or you can take the course instead. Convicted at 30 or more over? The suspension happens regardless.

To be convicted of aggressive driving, you must commit at least three offenses from a set list during a single continuous episode, such as speeding, tailgating, unsafe lane changes, ignoring signals, failing to yield and passing on the shoulder. The course must be done within 90 days of that conviction.

The voluntary side: the insurance discount

The Department of Insurance describes the benefit this way: complete an approved course and part of your car insurance premium can drop by as much as 10 percent, for three years. Finish a refresher in the 180 days before those three years end and the figure can rise to 15 percent, again for three years. No age limit is stated.

Course approval moved to the DMV on March 11, 2015, under its Regulation 2224; the discount itself remains the Department of Insurance's responsibility. If an insurer refuses to apply it, call the Department of Insurance consumer services line.

Choosing a course that counts

The DMV's Defensive Driving Courses page splits approved providers into classroom and online lists, and gives an email address for questions. A course that is not on that list earns neither the credit nor the discount.

Two things the course will never do: replace a behavior modification course you have been ordered to take, or wipe out points already assessed.

Regulation 2224 sets the standards: a classroom basic course gives six or more hours of instruction and a refresher three or more. Online courses close with a final exam of 25 or more questions, passed at 80 percent, and you sign an affidavit that you took it yourself. Providers have 14 days to report your completion to the DMV.