Defensive Driving and Traffic Tickets in Vermont

The honest answer first: no course clears a Vermont ticket

Nothing on DMV's suspension, point system or driver education pages offers a class that dismisses a ticket or subtracts points, and Vermont courts have no traffic school program of the kind found in some states.

If a company sells a class it says will clear a Vermont ticket, ask which DMV or Judicial Bureau rule allows that. If they cannot name one, the class will not touch your record.

In the first 21 days: answering the complaint

Vermont tickets are Civil Violation Complaints, and the Vermont Judicial Bureau handles them. DMV's suspensions page sends ticket questions to the Judicial Bureau at 802-295-8869.

4 V.S.A. 1105 gives you 21 days from the date the complaint was issued to ask for a hearing or accept the penalty. Paying the waiver penalty means you are not contesting. Let the deadline pass and you get a default judgment plus a $20 fee for not answering.

Money owed after a judgment has its own timeline. Day 30 unpaid brings a $30 late charge. The Bureau has to let you spread payments, capped at $30 monthly for each traffic judgment. Leave it unpaid past day 75 and the debt may head to a collection agency or a contempt hearing. Outstanding fines can be paid through Court Pay on VT Courts Online.

At the hearing: the one way to keep points off

Because no course erases points, the ticket stage is where you have leverage. If you think the officer got it wrong, ask the Judicial Bureau for a hearing.

Guilty, but with years of safe driving behind you? 23 V.S.A. 2501(b) lets the hearing officer or judge skip the points, which is as close as Vermont gets to masking a ticket. Every condition must hold: the violation is worth 3 points at most; your record shows zero points over the last five years and 3 or fewer over the last ten; you were not in a commercial vehicle; and the incident injured nobody and damaged nobody else's property.

What each violation costs in points

Each guilty finding on a motor vehicle law brings points; parking tickets and equipment defects do not. Sample values from the manual:

• Speeding: 2 to 8, scaled to how far over you were
• Texting while driving: 2 to 5
• Driving with no license: 2
• Running a stop sign or red light: 2
• Not yielding to a pedestrian in a crosswalk: 4
• Not obeying a police officer: 4
• Not yielding to an emergency vehicle, or passing a stopped school bus: 5

If you reach 10 points

DMV suspends anyone with 10 or more points within two years. It sends a letter first, and you may ask for a hearing to check the convictions and the count. The bigger the total in that window, the longer the suspension.

How long? Ten points means 10 days, 15 means 30 days, and 20 means 90 days, with 30 days tacked on per 5 points after that (23 V.S.A. 2506). You get no less than 10 days' warning. Points count for two years from each conviction under 23 V.S.A. 2503.

To get back on the road, DMV says you serve the whole term and pay the Driver Control fee, $96 as of October 2026. Vermont has no hardship or work license, so plan on not driving at all during the suspension. You can pay the reinstatement fee at any time without waiting until the ticket is paid.

If you are a junior driver

For permit and junior license holders, the margin is thin. Six points, or even one speeding ticket worth 3, costs the license for 90 days. Getting caught texting brings a 30 day recall plus a $100 minimum fine and two or more points.

Worse, the recall resets the six clean months a teen needs before moving up. So if your teen honestly believes the officer was mistaken, the hearing is worth requesting.

Phones in work zones

Holding a phone while driving through a marked work zone where crews are working is costly: the manual sets two points on a first conviction and five on any repeat, with bigger fines each time.

Five points is half of the suspension line, so a second offense is far more serious than its fine suggests.

If a second ticket arrives: doing the math

Points fade only with time, since the suspension rule counts points received within two years. Before you decide how to handle a second ticket, check your record.

Example: you got a 4 point speeding ticket last spring. A new 5 point ticket for passing a stopped school bus would put you at 9, one point from the line. That is when requesting a hearing, rather than paying the waiver, deserves serious thought.

Suspended anyway? The reinstatement notice lists what you owe besides the $96, and it varies. Some drivers need an SR-22 insurance filing, some must retake the written and road tests, some have court conditions to satisfy, and some need a doctor's clearance.

Programs Vermont does require, and why they are different

Some offenses carry a mandatory program, which is a different thing from a points class. Lose your license over alcohol and you complete the Impaired Driver Rehabilitation Program; certain drivers also get a Restricted Driver's License that requires an ignition interlock.

Drivers under 21 cited for alcohol are sent by Vermont Court Diversion to the Teen Alcohol Safety Program, with a suspension waiting for anyone who drops out. Neither program is defensive driving, and neither wipes out some other ticket.

Insurance and course discounts

State law, as DMV describes it, does not force insurers to discount for safety classes; its page for older drivers is about warning signs and re-exams. Individual companies may still reward an approved class, often for senior drivers.

Phone your insurer, ask whether a discount exists and which providers count, and get the answer in writing before paying for a class.