Kentucky Points: What a Ticket Costs and How to Protect Your License

First: how Kentucky counts

The cabinet posts points, following regulation 601 KAR 13:025, each time a moving violation ends in conviction. Kentucky counts as a conviction pleading guilty, pleading no contest or entering an Alford plea, forfeiting bond, or just paying the fine and costs, whether or not you went to court.

Each conviction's points count toward suspension for two years, while the conviction stays on your record for five. Out-of-state convictions can add points too, with one exception: speeding tickets from other states carry no Kentucky points.

What common tickets are worth

Three points is the going rate for routine mistakes. That covers speeding by no more than 15 off the interstate, rolling a stop sign or red light, not yielding, careless driving, wandering out of your lane, going too fast for the weather, and texting. Interstates and similar highways are kinder at the low end: KRS 186.572 makes 10 or less over worth zero, though 11 to 15 over is still 3.

Four points go with reckless driving, tailgating, wrong-side driving and not pulling over for an ambulance or fire truck. Passing illegally is 5. Six is the charge for going 16 to 25 over, for going around a school or church bus that has stopped, and for racking up multiple violations in a single stop.

A quick example: a 17 year old gets 18 over on a county road (6 points). That alone is past the under-18 warning letter at 4, and one more 3 point ticket within two years would reach the hearing level of 7.

• 0 points: up to 10 over on a limited access highway
• 3 points: most minor moving violations, including texting
• 4 points: reckless driving, tailgating
• 5 points: improper passing
• 6 points: mid-range speeding, or ignoring a stopped bus

If the ticket skips the point count

Certain offenses bypass the tally. Drag racing, or exceeding the limit by 26 or more, puts you in front of a hearing officer with a possible 90 day suspension on the line. Since July 1, 2020, trying to outrun police does the same, immediately.

Impaired driving and other crimes with suspensions written into statute are handled outside the point system altogether.

If points add up: letters, hearings and suspensions

The first signal is a letter: adults get one at 6 points within two years, drivers under 18 at 4. The second is a summons. Adults at 12 and under 18 drivers at 7 must meet informally with a driver improvement hearing officer.

Fail to appear and the license is suspended. A first time costs anywhere from 90 days to six months; a second, a year; any further one inside two years, two years. Unhappy with what the officer ordered? Write to the cabinet's Office of Legal Services within 20 days and request a formal hearing.

If you are offered probation

A driver with a valid license who shows up to the hearing may get probation in place of suspension. The probation term is double the length of the suspension it substitutes for, and normally comes with a clinic delivered through State Traffic School.

Break it, by getting convicted again or skipping the clinic, and you serve the suspension after all. Probation can be granted just once in a two year span, measured from when your previous probation ended.

Checking your record

For $6 the cabinet emails a link to download your 3-year record. The complete history, or a certified clearance letter, costs $3; get it at a Regional Office or mail form TC 94-195 with a cashier's check or money order made out to the Kentucky State Treasurer.

Insurers and employers mostly see the 3-year version, and traffic school sentences do not appear on it. Pull it after every ticket and confirm the court's order was carried out.

Points versus your insurance rate

Kentucky points and insurance surcharges run on separate tracks. The cabinet uses points only for warning letters, hearings and suspensions, while insurers price your policy on the convictions they can see, usually on the 3-year record.

So even a driver with a spotless record should ask for traffic school after a ticket, because it keeps the entry off the 3-year record as well as stopping points. Separately, at 55 and up, a cabinet approved Over 55 course may lower premiums; it has no effect on points.