Points in Rhode Island: How Convictions Count Instead

The short answer: no points, but the count matters

Many states attach points to violations. Rhode Island does not, and there is no point reduction course. The statutes link consequences to the number of convictions you collect and how close together they fall.

So watch the calendar. Speeding again within a year of your last ticket gets much pricier, and a fourth moving violation inside 18 months can take your license away for as long as a year.

Before you pay: what common tickets cost

Most fines come from the schedule in G.L. 31-41.1-4. If you settle without a hearing, you owe the listed fine and a technology surcharge, and nothing more in costs or assessments.

Phone tickets for using a handheld device climb with each conviction: $100, then $150, then $250 from the third on, and they are heard only at the Traffic Tribunal. Teens under 18 pay the same scale for any phone use, hands-free included, and a third conviction can leave them unlicensed until their 18th birthday.

• Speeding 1 to 10 mph over: $95
• Speeding 11 mph or more over: $10 for each mph over, $205 minimum
• Red light or stop sign: $100
• Tailgating or an unsafe lane change: $100
• Failing to yield: $100
• No seat belt, driver or passenger: $40
• No child restraint: $100
• Expired license or registration: $100

If you have more than one speeding ticket in a year

Low-end speeding (no more than 10 over) gets expensive on repeat. Ticket number two inside a year is priced at $10 for every mph over the limit. Ticket number three is $15 a mph, and the court may add a suspension of as much as 30 days.

Once you are more than 10 over, the math is per mph from the start: $10 for each one on a first ticket, $15 on a second inside a year, $20 on a third. That third ticket can also bring a suspension lasting up to 60 days.

Here is an example. Caught at 20 over on a first offense, $10 for each mph comes to $200, which the minimum raises to $205. If you are caught at 20 over again within a year, the rate rises to $15 per mph, or $300, before the surcharge.

If you reach four violations in 18 months

G.L. 31-27-24 is better known as the Colin Foote law. Four convictions for moving violations on four different occasions, all inside 18 months, mean 60 hours of retraining and 60 hours of community service, which the court must order. It may also fine you up to $1,000 and suspend you for up to a year or revoke for up to two, though only after finding that letting you keep driving would be a substantial hazard to safety.

Not every ticket counts toward the four; only the offenses below do. The Colin Foote course at CCRI was $850 in October 2026.

• Disobeying traffic devices and stop signs
• Speeding
• Passing on the right and lane violations
• Following too closely
• Driving in the breakdown lane
• Aggressive driving

For teens and newly licensed drivers

Teens face a timing trap. Any moving violation or seat belt conviction in the half year before applying blocks both the provisional license and the early full license. On top of that, a judge can send a teen with a first ticket, during graduated licensing or the first licensed year, to CCRI's Alive at 25, a five hour class.

Adults get early attention too. Under G.L. 31-10-26, a brand new license holder with even one moving violation or reportable crash can be called before the Traffic Tribunal to justify keeping the license.

Can any course clean up your record?

No. With no points, there is nothing for a course to take away, and court-ordered classes are penalties stacked on a conviction rather than credits against it.

Only a dismissal or a win keeps it off. The DMV leaves court-dismissed violations, good record dismissals among them, out of your record, and if a judge finds you not guilty, no civil violation is recorded.

After the ticket: checking your record and avoiding a suspension

You can buy a certified copy on ri.gov, using the DMV's record portal, or walk up to the Adjudication Office, third floor of the Cranston headquarters. Read it line by line: anything dismissed should be missing, and every conviction should really be yours.

Ignoring a fine is the expensive option. According to the Judiciary, the state can suspend your license or registration, keep your tax refund, and after 90 days put your name and unpaid amount on the internet. If a city or town court suspended you, that same municipality is where you clear it.