About The Ticket File: An Independent Traffic Ticket Guide

The Ticket File is an independent, plain-English guide to what happens after a traffic ticket in the United States. It explains what a fine is made of, whether a ticket is a crime, what paying one means, how people contest one, how license points work in each state, when a license is suspended and how it comes back, what traffic school can and can’t do, what a ticket means for a commercial driver, and what SR-22 and FR-44 filings are. The guides sit in six sections: tickets and fines, fighting a ticket, points and records, suspension and reinstatement, SR-22 and FR-44, and traffic rules by state.

This page is general information about the law, not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Traffic, license and SR-22 rules vary by state and change. The court’s or the DMV’s own letter controls.

What we do

There is no national point system, no national SR-22 rule and no national traffic-school rule. Each state writes its own, and they change. New York, for example, now counts points over 24 months instead of 18 for violations from 16 February 2026 (New York DMV memo P2/M1 2026 and 15 NYCRR 131.3, read 12 November 2026). Texas has had no point system since 1 September 2019 and counts convictions instead (Tex. Transp. Code 521.292, read 11 November 2026). Much of what is written about tickets gives one number for the whole country, or repeats a rule that has since moved.

So every state rule on this site carries its statute or rule section and the day we read it. Where we could not read a rule in an official source, the page says “not confirmed” and links that state’s DMV or official code. We keep three kinds of “how long” apart: the window in which points or convictions count toward a suspension, how long a ticket shows on a driving record, and any rule that lets points drop or count for less over time. Our how we check page explains where each kind of fact comes from, and sources we use lists them with their read dates. Pages are published under The Ticket File name.

What we are not

The Ticket File is not a law firm, a lawyer referral service, a court, a DMV, a government agency, a payment site, an insurer, an SR-22 agency or a traffic school. We give general information, not legal advice, and nothing here is a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Reading this site, using a tool or writing to us creates no attorney-client relationship.

We have not seen your ticket, your driving record or your letter from the court or the DMV. We never tell a reader what will happen to their license, how many points a ticket will add to their record, how long they need a filing, or what a ticket will cost them. We never say whether to pay, plead, contest, take a course, ask for a deferral or supervision, request a hearing or hire a lawyer. Pages explain how the process works, what each choice means in the law as written, and where the court’s and the DMV’s own pages are. The statute, the court and the DMV decide, and the court’s or the DMV’s own letter controls.

We take no payments of any kind and look up no one’s ticket, license or record. Where a state has an official statewide payment or court look-up page, a state page links it and labels it “official”.

How we are funded

The Ticket File is funded by display advertising. Ads may not appear yet while the site is new. Once they run, the ad network chooses which ads appear, not us, and some may come from lawyers, insurers, traffic schools or other companies that sell to drivers. An ad is not an endorsement, a referral or a recommendation, and advertisers have no say over what we publish.

How we stay independent

No affiliate links. We earn nothing if you buy, enroll in or sign up for anything after reading a page.
No paid placements. Nobody can pay for coverage, a mention or a better position.
No sold leads. We collect no details to pass on to lawyers, insurers, traffic schools or anyone else.
No lawyer referrals. We keep no lawyer listings and offer no “free case review”. Where a page mentions legal help, it points to the court’s own self-help center and the state bar’s own referral service, named as the bar’s.
No insurance sales or quotes. We sell no insurance or SR-22 filings, offer no quotes and name no insurer.
No traffic-school or course sales. We sell no course and name no school.
No rankings. We don’t rank or call anyone “best”: not lawyers, traffic schools, ticket apps, insurers or SR-22 agencies.
Nothing for sale. We sell no letters, pleas, forms or templates.

That is why our pages can say things a seller might not: that a widely repeated rule is out of date, that a course does less in one state than in another, or that a state’s own text sets no fixed term for a filing.

How pages are checked

Every page gets a fact-check against its sources, separate from the writing, and ends with the date its statutes and rules were checked. State rows are rechecked every three months and after each state’s legislative session. Our editorial policy sets out each step.

Where to start

If you are new to points, start with how license points work. The points and suspension rules by state show each state’s schedule, threshold and window as we read them, and the points and suspension checker sets your own entries beside your state’s rule as written. If you have been told to file an SR-22, what an SR-22 is and the SR-22 rules by state explain the filing. For what you have been sent, read the ticket or the letter first: the dates and steps on it come from the court or the DMV, and they control.