Understanding and Reducing Driving Points in Maryland

How points land on your record

Being pulled over does not cost you points. They post once a judge's conviction reaches the MVA, and they are backdated to the violation date. Because paying a payable citation is legally a conviction, paying brings the points with it. Win at trial and you get none.

Several charges from one traffic stop? Only the single most expensive one is scored. Most non-moving offenses, parking included, are point free, and a camera ticket (speed, red light, school bus, toll) adds nothing when you pay it.

What common violations are worth

Section 16-402 of the Transportation Article is the source. The default is 1 point, for any moving violation the statute does not name separately and that did not help cause a crash; most tickets for under 10 mph over fall here. Ten or more over earns 2, as does running a red light.

Three points apply when your moving violation contributes to a crash, and also when you pass a school bus that is stopped with red lights flashing. Use the list below as a guide to common charges, and confirm your exact one in the statute or in the Judiciary's schedule of citation fines and points.

• Tailgating: 2
• Negligent driving: 2
• 20+ mph over on a 65 mph road: 5
• Aggressive driving: 5
• Driving on a learner's permit without a supervisor: 5
• Reckless driving, or 30+ mph over: 6
• Driving while impaired: 8; DUI: 12
• Fleeing police, or leaving a crash scene where someone was hurt: 12

When the MVA steps in

To score you, the MVA looks back two years from your latest violation and adds up everything in that span. Three or four points earns a warning letter. Five through seven means you are ordered into the Driver Improvement Program. Eight through eleven produces a Notice of Suspension. Twelve and above produces a Notice of Revocation.

Two quick examples. A driver with a 2 point ticket last spring and a 3 point crash ticket this fall is at 5, which means the DIP. Add a reckless driving conviction worth 6 and the total is 11, which brings a suspension notice.

Provisional drivers live under a stricter overlay. Reach 5 points within a 12 month stretch and the provisional license is suspended, for 6 months on the first occasion and 12 months on any later one. Tickets from other states that get reported to Maryland may be scored at whatever the Maryland equivalent is worth.

If a suspension or revocation notice arrives

Option one is to accept it. Surrender the card by the deadline, either through the mail or at an MVA counter, where you should ask for a receipt. Lateness is costly: the suspension grows by one day for each day you are late. Lost the card? A Certified Statement explaining what happened takes its place.

Option two is to fight it before the Office of Administrative Hearings. Send the notice back with a check for the fee (usually $150, payable to the MD State Treasurer) no later than 15 days after the date on the notice. Nothing happens to your license until the hearing, which tends to be scheduled 4 to 6 weeks out. When your points include an alcohol or drug conviction, you may be offered the Ignition Interlock Program as a different route.

How long points stay with you

The two year mark is when a point stops mattering for MVA action, yet the entry itself sits on your record until it is expunged. Transportation Article 16-117.1 sets three timelines. The shortest, 3 years, applies when you have gone that long with no moving violation conviction and have never been suspended or revoked for safety reasons.

If you have at most one safety suspension and have never been revoked, it takes 5 years. A 10 year clean run with no moving violation conviction, and no PBJ for DUI or for leaving the scene of a crash that hurt or killed someone, clears the record whatever your suspension history. Some entries never leave: anything needed to apply repeat offender penalties, DUI for example, and any violation involving a death.

Can you lower your points at all?

Not by taking a class. In the MVA's words, points are not removed on request. That holds for the Driver Improvement Program and for any voluntary course alike. The DIP is aimed at changing how you drive and at sparing you the suspension that follows an ignored referral; subtraction is not part of it.

Your leverage comes earlier, in court. A not guilty verdict means no points. For drivers without a CDL, PBJ from the judge usually keeps the case from counting as a conviction for scoring. And when a court orders a dismissed or vacated charge expunged, the MVA can delete it. Beyond that, only the calendar and a clean record help.

Keeping an eye on your record

There is no limit on how often you can order a copy, certified or not, on myMVA. Do it after every court case to be sure a not guilty finding or PBJ was entered correctly and that your completed DIP is showing.

Spot an error? Get the record, read exactly how the conviction is listed, and send the MVA your paperwork; fixing it often takes the court's own records. Because insurers and employers can see your record with your permission, do not let mistakes sit.