No Points in Mississippi: How Your Driving Record Really Works

First, the answer: there are no points

Mississippi does not run a point system. The MDPS Driver's Manual walks through suspension, revocation and reinstatement in depth, yet it never gives any violation a point value, and no point table exists on any MDPS page. If an ad or online quiz promises to wipe points off a Mississippi license, it is selling a fix for a system the state does not have.

That does not make tickets free. Every conviction a court reports goes onto your MDPS record, and insurers and many employers read it. A court has 45 days after a traffic conviction to send MDPS a certified abstract of it.

What can trigger a suspension instead

No hearing is required first. The Commissioner of Public Safety may suspend your license if the records point to any item in the list below. No fixed ticket count sets it off, which is exactly why a run of serious violations is dangerous even with no points.

Think of it this way: you will not find a magic number of tickets in the manual. What MDPS looks at is the pattern, so the fourth serious violation in a short span is a judgment call you do not want made about you.

• Being convicted of something that carries automatic revocation
• Driving in a crash that causes death, injury or serious property damage
• A pattern of habitually reckless or negligent driving
• Frequent convictions for serious traffic violations
• A drunk driving conviction from another state, or any offense elsewhere that would have cost you a Mississippi license
• Obtaining a license here while your privilege is suspended in another state, or child support arrears

If the conviction is serious: one year revocations

Some convictions leave no discretion at all. MDPS has to take your license for a full year for any of these: a vehicle crash that ends in a manslaughter or negligent homicide conviction; a felony in which a vehicle was used; leaving a crash scene without stopping to help; a false statement to MDPS about who owns or drives a vehicle; or a third reckless driving conviction inside 12 months.

Alcohol follows its own scale. A first DUI at .08 percent costs 120 days of driving; refuse the breath test and add another 90. Under 21, the Zero Tolerance line is .02 percent, and a first offense means $250 and 120 days, with one year for the second and two years, or until 21, for the third.

If you missed court or did not pay

Most Mississippi suspensions are administrative, not the result of dangerous driving. Skip court or leave a fine unpaid and the license is suspended; getting it back costs $100 for each of those suspension types. Missed court dates, and licenses handed over in place of bond, also call for a corrected abstract from the judge before MDPS will act.

Make the reinstatement payment out to the Department of Public Safety as a money order or cashier's check, and mail it to the Driver Records Division at Canton. Cash and personal checks sent by mail are refused.

Checking your Mississippi record

Your own certified record is $14.31 if you order online. Mail orders need form DPPA-2, signed before a notary, plus an $11 money order or cashier's check and an envelope addressed to yourself with postage. Walk-ins bring the same form and their license to a station and pay $11 there.

Court abstracts stay on file at MDPS for three years, and anyone may inspect them. Completed violator courses are tracked in a different, private record that only courts use. Look at your record after any ticket and before you shop for insurance.

Courses that still help

With no points in play, a course helps in two other ways. First, the violator course, available once in three years, keeps a qualifying ticket from ever landing on your record. Second, under Section 63-15-46, a driver aged 55 or over who finishes an approved accident prevention class (AARP Smart Driver is one) is owed a premium reduction lasting three years.

The 55 and over discount is lost after an at fault crash, or a moving violation conviction or a guilty or no contest plea to one. A CDL holder may not take the violator course at all.