How to Reduce Demerit Points in Maine

Before you do anything: how points get on your record

The point scale is set out in Chapter 1 of the Secretary of State's rules (authorized by section 2458 of Title 29-A), and it is the same for every driver. A conviction or adjudication is what puts points on you, and paying a ticket without contesting it is one.

Do not assume a ticket is point free because it is not on the published list. The list is not complete, and anything classed as another moving violation is worth 2. When you reach half the suspension level, 6 points, the BMV mails you a notice.

What common tickets are worth

Speeding is where most points come from. Less than 15 mph over is 4 points; 15 to 29 mph over is 6. At 30 mph or more over, the ticket leaves the point system altogether and becomes a designated offense that can carry its own suspension of up to 30 days.

Use the list below to estimate. Two 6 point tickets in the same year already reach 12. So would three 4 point tickets.

• 8 points: operating after suspension, charged as a traffic infraction
• 6 points: speeding 15 to 29 mph over
• 6 points: passing improperly or on the right
• 6 points: an improper or erratic lane change
• 6 points: leaving the scene of a crash with property damage
• 6 points: breaking the rules of an instruction permit
• 4 points: speeding less than 15 mph over
• 4 points: running a red light or stop sign
• 4 points: failing to yield, including to pedestrians and emergency vehicles
• 4 points: imprudent driving or imprudent speed
• 2 points: tailgating, not signaling, an illegal U-turn
• 2 points: failing to keep control of the vehicle

When the points become a suspension

Hit 12 inside a year and the state can pull your license for as long as 15 days, and it does not need to hold a hearing beforehand. Rack up three suspensions in three years (counting point suspensions and court suspensions for listed offenses alike) and the next offense can cost you up to 120 extra days.

Some convictions bypass the count entirely. Eluding an officer or running a roadblock can mean up to 90 days. Operating after suspension can mean up to 60. Up to 30 days applies to each of these: a 30+ mph speeding ticket, passing a school bus that is stopped, and driving solo on a permit.

How long a point lasts

Maine's window is short: each conviction's points are erased once it is a year old. That is not the same as clearing your history. Your history still shows the conviction, and an insurer or employer pulling your record will see it.

The short window changes how you should use a course. Say you get a 6 point ticket in June and another 4 point ticket in September. Taking the course right after the June ticket puts the credit on your record during exactly the months both tickets are counting, and it is still live in September.

Using the three-point course credit

Chapter 1, section 6, is where the credit comes from: 3 points for passing a driver improvement class authorized by Public Safety or by the Secretary of State. You can earn it only once in any 12 month period, and it expires a year after your completion date.

Most people take Maine Driving Dynamics, a five-hour course that costs $70. There are approved alternatives too, both online and in a classroom, on the Bureau of Highway Safety's page. A quick call to the BMV (207-624-9000, extension 52100) before you sign up will tell you how the credit fits your own record.

Clean years count too

Get through January to December with nothing on your record (no conviction, adjudication, suspension or revocation) and you earn a violation free credit when the year closes. Four is the ceiling, and each one can wipe out a point at the Secretary of State's discretion.

If a violation from those clean years turns up at the BMV later, the credits from that period are cancelled. Combine four clean years with a course credit and you could offset as many as seven points at once.

If you are a new driver: points are not the real danger

During a provisional period, two years if you were first licensed under 21 and one year if you were 21 or older, one moving violation conviction is enough for a suspension, however small its point value. The first is 30 days, the second 180 days and the third a year. For drivers under 18, an intermediate license violation brings suspensions of 60 days, 180 days and one year.

A course credit does not undo any of those. In the provisional period, the only dependable strategy is not getting the ticket in the first place.

Checking your record and asking for a hearing

Records can be ordered online, at a branch or from a BMV mobile unit. A three year copy is $5; ten years is $10. If you are suspended under the point rules, you may ask for a hearing, although the suspension can remain in force while you wait.

You can settle a reinstatement fee by phone, online (with a $5 processing charge) or at a branch, but not at a mobile unit.