Defensive Driving in Maine: What a Course Can and Cannot Do

First, the honest answer: no ticket dismissal

Maine does not dismiss tickets for a course. Traffic infractions here are civil matters, sent to the Violations Bureau of the state courts, and the courts' guidance describes only two paths. Pay it by answering that you do not contest, or contest it and go to trial.

Where a course helps is your BMV record, by offsetting demerit points. In other words, Maine is a point credit state, not a dismissal state.

When the ticket arrives: paying or contesting

To fight it, mark the box on the ticket or file online through Guide and File. Count 35 days from the date the officer wrote the ticket; the Bureau must have your answer by then. Trials take place remotely by Zoom, a judge decides with no jury, and the court will not appoint a lawyer for you.

Paying instead? Once the disposition is entered, you have 30 days to pay in full. Miss that and your license gets suspended, with a $50 late fee per violation and a reinstatement fee at the BMV on top.

You can pay online through Traffic Pay, call 1-866-729-8499, walk into any state courthouse clerk's office, or mail it to P.O. Box 480, Lewiston, ME 04243-0480, addressed to the Violations Bureau. A ticket the officer wrote by hand may not appear online for a few days. Mail early: the payment counts on the day it arrives, and the postmark does not help you.

How points add up on a Maine record

The Secretary of State sets the point rules in Chapter 1, under the authority of section 2458 of Title 29-A. Reach 12 points within a single year and you can lose your license for as long as 15 days. Points do not linger: each conviction's points come off when it turns a year old.

At the halfway mark, 6 points, the BMV mails you a warning notice. Drivers who have been suspended three times in three years face up to 120 more days off the road for their next offense.

What common tickets are worth

A few examples from the schedule help you do the math. The lightest tickets, at 2 points, include turning illegally, tailgating and forgetting to signal. Four points covers a lot of everyday mistakes: blowing a red light or stop sign, not yielding, imprudent driving, and speeding by less than 15 mph. Six points goes to passing or changing lanes improperly and to speeding by 15 to 29 mph.

Speeds of 30 mph or more over the posted limit sit outside the regular point math. That is a designated offense, and it alone can bring up to 30 days of suspension. So two 6 point tickets in a year already put you at 12.

• Speeding by less than 15 mph: 4 points
• Speeding 15 to 29 mph over: 6 points
• Tailgating: 2 points
• Driving after suspension, charged as an infraction: 8 points

Using the 3-point credit well

The credit lives in section 6 of Chapter 1. Pass a driver improvement course that either the Secretary of State or Public Safety has authorized and 3 points come off, but you can only use this once per 12 months.

Timing is the trick, because the credit itself expires 12 months after your completion date. Picture a driver who takes a class in January as a precaution and then gets a 4 point ticket the following March: by then the credit is gone. Not sure how it will play out on your record? The BMV line for this is 207-624-9000, extension 52100.

The state's homegrown option is Maine Driving Dynamics, offered by the Bureau of Highway Safety within Public Safety. Plan on five hours focused on avoiding collisions and on attitude and habit behind the wheel. As of October 2026 the listed price is $70, though a host school may tack on its own charge. Many sessions run as two weeknights at a high school or adult ed center. You register by calling the sponsor on the Bureau's schedule. Give the credit up to two weeks to process.

No Driving Dynamics class nearby? That Bureau page also names other providers, both classroom and online, that it has cleared for the point credit and the insurance discount. Pick from the list. Any internet course missing from it gets you nothing on your record.

Credit for staying clean

Maine rewards a clean year too. A calendar year with no conviction, adjudication, suspension or revocation earns a violation free credit. You can bank as many as four, and the Secretary of State may apply each one against a point.

There is a catch. Credits are wiped out if a violation from the years you earned them surfaces later at the BMV.

If you are a new driver on a provisional license

Provisional license holders are suspended for a moving violation. The BMV can make you complete an approved traffic offender program, pay $200 to reinstate and pass a road exam again before you drive. Hold on to a copy of your course certificate; it goes to the Secretary of State.

Remember that a course the BMV or a court ordered you to take is not a voluntary course, and that difference matters when it comes to insurance.

At 55 and older: the insurance discount

Maine's insurance code (Title 24-A, section 2902-G) tells insurers to cut liability, personal injury protection and collision rates for three years when the car's main driver is at least 55 and has passed an accident prevention course that Public Safety's Bureau of Highway Safety approved.

To keep the discount, pass an approved course every three years. Insurers are allowed to condition it on a clean household: no suspension, moving violation or accident you caused during those years. And if a court or agency ordered you into the course after a moving violation, you do not qualify.

If you drive commercially

If you hold a CDL or a commercial learner's permit, federal rule 49 CFR 384.226 stops any state from masking, deferring or diverting your traffic convictions, even ones in your own car. Only parking, weight and defect violations are carved out. The 3-point credit changes nothing about what lands on your record.

Assume each ticket will post, and weigh a contest seriously.

You also owe your employer a heads up. Under 49 CFR 383.31, commercial drivers report any traffic conviction other than parking within 30 days, no matter which vehicle was involved.