Minnesota Tickets, Records and the 55 Plus Driving Course

The first thing to know: no statewide dismissal course

We could not find any statewide arrangement in Minnesota where a defensive driving class buys a dismissal or a clean record. DVS approves four kinds of course: driver education, the 55 plus accident prevention course, DWI clinics and motorcycle training. Nothing on that list dismisses tickets.

Individual courts or prosecutors might offer a local diversion. To find out whether yours does, ask the office named on the citation before paying anything, since payment on a payable citation ends the case for good.

Within 30 days: paying or contesting

Payable citations written by local police, the DNR or the State Patrol can be paid to the Minnesota Judicial Branch by phone, online, by mail, or at the courthouse in the county of the stop. Citations that require you to appear in court are not payable this way.

The crucial point: according to the Judicial Branch, paying is pleading guilty. Every offense listed becomes a conviction, and you waive a trial, a lawyer, and the chance to confront witnesses. The window to pay or set up a court appearance is 30 days, counted from when the citation is filed with the court.

To try to avoid a conviction, book the appearance before you pay. The court says that at the appearance you can talk to a prosecutor, a hearing officer or a judicial officer, and you might settle the matter without a conviction on every count. Lose at trial, and a petty misdemeanor can cost as much as $300 plus the state surcharge, $75 for most offenses according to the court.

If money is tight: payment plans and hardship

The Minnesota Court Payment Center sets up $50 a month plans on payable citations, as long as you have not asked for a plan on that case before, have not yet appeared, and have not picked up a second late penalty. Separately, Minnesota Statutes 169.99 lets you book an appearance and ask the court to waive some or all of the fine because of indigency or hardship.

Doing nothing costs the most: late penalties, a collections referral, even a warrant. Since 2021, Minnesota Statutes 171.16 has blocked DVS from suspending a license solely over an unpaid traffic fine or a missed court date on a petty misdemeanor. Missing court on a misdemeanor, or ignoring a ticket from another state, can still end in suspension.

Good news: tickets that never reach your record

Minor speeding sometimes never shows up. Under subdivision 6 of Minnesota Statutes 171.12, DVS leaves a speeding conviction off your record if you were going 10 mph over or less where the limit is 55, or 5 mph over or less where it is 60. Example: 64 in a 55 stays off; 66 in a 55 goes on.

The exemption is lost if you were in a commercial motor vehicle, or if you hold any commercial license (Class A, B or C) or a commercial learner's permit. Suspensions, revocations and convictions generally remain on the record for five years or more.

Minnesota Statutes 169.999 lets the State Patrol and some local agencies hand out an administrative citation in place of a court ticket, for speeding less than 10 over, stop line violations and some equipment faults. It costs $60, a neutral hearing officer hears any challenge, and DPS is barred from recording it. It is not available to CDL holders or to anyone in a commercial vehicle.

The one course that clears a ticket: speed cameras

Lawmakers approved speed safety cameras on a trial basis, running from August 1, 2025 until July 31, 2029, in Minneapolis, in Mendota Heights, and in chosen work zones on trunk highways. Your first camera violation is a warning. The second can go to diversion, meaning a free traffic safety class lasting 30 minutes or more; complete it and you pay nothing and are not convicted. DVS never records camera violations. Check with the city that sent the notice whether its cameras were operating at that spot.

Commercial drivers are shut out of all of this. 49 CFR 384.226, a federal rule, forbids Minnesota to mask, defer or divert a CDL holder's traffic conviction in any vehicle, which explains why the speeding exemption, administrative citations and camera diversion all exclude them.

For drivers 55 and older: the accident prevention course

Minnesota Statutes 65B.28 obliges insurers to reduce premiums, by 10% at minimum, for policyholders 55 and older who finish an approved accident prevention course. It reaches private passenger vehicle policies written, delivered or renewed in the state.

Four hours is the length. To keep the reduction, every three years you complete a refresher capped at four hours, or take the full course once more. The schools and groups approved to teach it are listed on the DPS driver education courses page.

Providers run it in different formats, online among them. The deciding factor is whether the provider is on the DPS Accident Prevention Courses (+55) list, because insurers are bound only by approved courses. Ask the provider when the certificate arrives and ask your insurer how to submit it, so the lower rate shows up on your next bill.

• Who: drivers 55 or older
• Discount: 10% or more, by law
• First course: 4 hours
• Refresher: every 3 years, 4 hours or less
• Providers: the DPS approved list

If convictions pile up: suspensions

Minnesota Statutes 171.18 lets the commissioner suspend a driver who is a habitual traffic violator or habitually reckless or negligent, among other grounds. Minnesota keeps no point total, and so offers no course to reduce one.

What counts is convictions, under Minnesota Rules part 7409.2200. Once you have had a warning letter, four convictions within 12 months, or five within 24, mean 30 days suspended, and higher counts bring longer suspensions. Our Minnesota point system page sets out every level.

October 2026 DVS fees: $20 to reinstate after a suspension, $30 after most revocations, and $680 after a revocation for alcohol, drugs or criminal vehicular operation. Teens are under different rules, such as the year-long delay of a full license after some provisional convictions.

Court ordered programs

After an impaired driving case, a court may order driver improvement. DVS keeps a list of approved DWI clinics whose classes satisfy that order. They come as part of a sentence or license action; nobody picks one to dodge a ticket.

If a court sends you to one, use the provider and the proof method the court specifies. A course you choose yourself, including the 55 plus class, cannot stand in for it.

Before you pay for a course: what will not help

Buying an online defensive driving class will not dismiss a Minnesota ticket or erase a conviction from DVS, and a 55 plus certificate touches only your insurance. When a site claims its course can clear a Minnesota ticket, ask which statute or court permits it.

There is no state mandated course discount for drivers younger than 55. Your insurer may have a safe driver program of its own, so ask.

Commercial license holders owe their employer written notice within 30 days of any non-parking traffic conviction, under 49 CFR 383.31. Speak with the court or a lawyer before you pay, since a guilty plea can feed into a federal disqualification.