Nebraska Defensive Driving: STOP and the Two Point Credit

First question: can a class end your ticket?

Quite often it can, by way of STOP. The Safety Center delivers the class; the county attorney picks which citations may go there. Take Buffalo County: there, completing the class closes the matter with nothing to pay as a fine, no hearing to attend and nothing added to your record.

STOP is a county program, not a statewide right you can claim anywhere. Each county attorney writes the details, so phone the office named on your citation before signing up.

Who STOP is for

Buffalo County's rules are a good preview of what most counties expect. Only small violations qualify. Shut out entirely: speeding by 20 or more, any DUI, reckless or willful reckless driving, racing, running from police, leaving a crash scene, driving with a suspended or revoked license or with no insurance, any crash where someone was hurt, and every charge that is a misdemeanor or felony.

Three personal situations also disqualify you: holding a CDL (even when the ticket came in your own car), having done STOP within three years, or wanting to fight the ticket. The DMV, for its part, states that CDL and CLP holders may not take STOP.

• No CDL or CLP
• No STOP class in the past three years
• A minor violation; for speeding, under 20 mph over
• You are not contesting the ticket

The clock: deadlines and paying

Act within days, not weeks. Buffalo County gives you five business days after the offense to enroll and three weeks to complete the class, which is taught several times monthly on the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus.

Elsewhere, each county picks its own timeline and price. If you let the window close, two options remain: fight the ticket in county court, or pay by waiver and accept the points.

A waiverable ticket is one you can settle by paying the fine and costs, no court date needed, and most minor tickets fall in that group. The fine amounts come from a schedule the Nebraska Supreme Court sets. You can pay on the Judicial Branch's citation website by card or eCheck, which tacks on a processing charge somewhere from $1.25 to $2.95.

Because a waiver payment is a conviction, the points come with it. If STOP is your plan, payment comes off the table. Also, if the DMV has already sent a suspension notice over an unpaid ticket, do not wait until the last day: an online payment can need 24 hours or more to show up at the court.

Weighing the cost of STOP

Budget for it, because counties charge differently. In Hall County the online version comes to $199 all in: a $100 class fee, a $50 county fee and $49 for court costs. Adams County splits it into $102 paid to the Safety Center and a separate $95 money order for the county court. Hall County's own prosecutors point out that STOP may end up pricier than the fine.

Online versions work like this: the business day after you sign up and pay, a link arrives. From then you have 21 days, or until the court date if that comes sooner, to get through four hours of video lessons, quizzes and a final exam. One attempt only, 80 percent to pass, no refunds, and failing means you pay the ticket after all. A worked example: if your waiver fine is lower than $199, STOP costs more in cash but keeps points away from your insurer.

Already convicted: the two point credit

When the conviction has already posted, look at the point credit. Drivers carrying fewer than 12 points may enroll, by choice, in an improvement course of four hours or more from the DMV's approved list. When the school reports that you finished, the DMV subtracts two of the points assessed in the last two years (or your single point, if you only had one).

Five years must pass between credits, and the course has to be done before the date of whatever violation would have given you point number 12. A course the DMV orders, whether for reinstatement or to stop an under 21 suspension, earns no credit. CDL and CLP holders are excluded.

The DMV publishes the list of certified providers. It includes in-person classes in several Nebraska towns and online National Safety Council courses you can take in English or Spanish.

Understanding Nebraska points

Points attach on conviction but are dated to the day of the violation. A conviction remains visible on your record for five years. Tickets from other states are scored exactly as if you had been stopped in Nebraska. Reach 12 points inside a two year window, measured back from your latest violation, and revocation follows automatically.

Speeding is scored by how far over you were and where. Since November 14, 2020, being 1 to 5 over costs nothing. On highways and interstates the scale runs 1 point (6 to 10 over), 2 (11 to 15), 3 (16 to 35) and 4 (beyond 35). In town, meaning business and residential districts, even 6 to 10 over is worth 2. Elsewhere on the chart: a first or second DUI scores 6, reckless driving 5, careless driving 4.

If your driver is under 21

Under 21, the threshold is six points in a year. A POP or license holder who gets there will be told by the DMV to complete a certified improvement course, four hours or more according to the under 21 suspension page (the POP page still says eight, so confirm with the DMV), and if three months pass after that notice without it, the permit or license is suspended.

No credit comes from that mandatory class. A teen under 18 with three or more points in the last year may still take a course to earn the credit, but the Class O upgrade remains locked until the 18th birthday or until the past 12 months show fewer than three points.

If it goes further: revocation and work permits

The first point revocation runs six months; a second within five years runs three years. Getting the license back takes four things: an approved improvement course of four hours or more, taken after the revocation began; three years of financial responsibility proof on file, an SR-22 for example; a $125 reinstatement fee; and passing the license tests again. No credit is earned by that course either.

If your work requires driving and you have no other suspension open, Neb. Rev. Stat. 60-4,129 may let you hold an Employment Driving Permit while revoked. It costs $50, and you owe the DMV a four hour improvement course within 60 days after the permit is approved. POP holders are not eligible.

Insurance, and where courses stop helping

We did not find any Nebraska requirement that insurers lower rates for a defensive driving course you take voluntarily; a few insurers do it anyway. Check with your agent first, and keep in mind that steering a ticket through STOP, so no points land at all, usually protects your premium better.

The heaviest offenses are beyond both tools. A third or subsequent DUI, or motor vehicle homicide, scores 12 points by itself, which is a revocation on its own, and STOP will not take a DUI, a reckless driving charge, or anything rated a misdemeanor or felony. In those cases, call a lawyer, not a course provider.