The Ticket File

How We Check

Where The Ticket File gets its points, suspension and SR-22 rules, why some rows say not confirmed, how tools are tested, and how often states are rechecked.

Traffic and license rules are easy to get wrong. Each state writes its own, they change, and old numbers get repeated long after a law moves on. A wrong threshold, a missed course limit or a wrong filing term can cost someone a license. This page sets out where our rules come from, how they are read and dated, why some rows say “not confirmed”, how our tools are built and tested, and how often everything is rechecked.

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.

Where rules come from

We go to the text that makes the rule and link it at the claim. Our sources we use page lists each one with its address and read date.

  • State law: the statute in the legislature’s or code reviser’s own official text, or an official PDF of it, and the state’s administrative code where the point schedule or the course rule sits in a regulation (New York’s points, for example, are in 15 NYCRR 131, and Illinois’s weights in 92 Ill. Adm. Code 1040). Each rule carries its section, the site’s own currency note where it gives one (such as “2026 Colorado Revised Statutes” or “current through September 30, 2025”), and the date we read it.
  • DMV, court and insurance-department pages: for process and fees, such as how to order a driving record, what a reinstatement costs, or what a state’s driver-improvement program asks. Useful, but not the statute, so we name them in plain words (“the DMV’s page says”) with the date. Forms are linked at the court or agency, never hosted here.
  • Federal rules: the Code of Federal Regulations on the eCFR (49 CFR 383 and 384 for commercial drivers), with the eCFR’s own “up to date as of” date; the US Code on govinfo.gov, by edition (49 USC 30304 on the National Driver Register, 2024 edition); the Federal Register for changes and their effective dates; and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s own pages.
  • The interstate compacts: the Driver License Compact’s text as a state adopted it in its own code (Virginia’s, at Va. Code 46.2-483, read 12 November 2026), with the member chart from AAMVA, the compacts’ secretariat, used only as the secretariat’s list of members (its chart is dated April 2026). AAMVA is a private association, not a government body, so we say so.
  • Insurance rules: only what a statute, a rule, a state insurance department or a state rate bureau itself sets or publishes. A percentage appears only where one of them sets or publishes it, labelled as theirs, such as California’s Good Driver Discount of “at least 20 percent below” the rate otherwise charged (Cal. Ins. Code 1861.02(b)(2), read 12 November 2026).

Never a source, not for a rule, a figure or a statement, not even as “according to”: law firm pages and blogs, lawyer directories and case-review sites, ticket-fighting apps and services, non-government “DMV” look-alike sites, traffic schools and course sellers, insurers and their blogs, SR-22 agencies, insurance quote, comparison and personal-finance sites, driving-record sellers, news summaries of a law, forums and video sites. A DMV source is the state agency’s own site only. Where a fact has no primary source, we leave it off.

How a rule gets on the page

Each rule and figure is sorted by how directly it was read, and that decides how we word it:

  • Read in official text. We state it plainly, with its section and the date we read it. Before a page uses a rule, the whole section is read again, not just the line that matched a search, because exceptions often sit further down: age bands and provisional licenses, commercial license holders, which date starts a window (the offense or the conviction), “not more than” against a fixed length, and course limits per period and per lifetime.
  • Read only on an agency page or in an unofficial copy. It is labelled that way on the page (“the DMV’s page says”, “unofficial copy”), and a state page’s main rule never rests on it alone.
  • Not read. It stays off the page and out of the tools. State tables show “not confirmed” for that row and link the state’s DMV or official code.

Why some rows say “not confirmed”

Some official texts can’t be read the way we read the rest. Some codes are published only through a commercial publisher’s site behind a terms page, and some state sites or agency pages could not be opened when we checked. We don’t get past an access restriction by any trick, and we never fill a gap from a law firm, a traffic school, an insurer or a summary site. So the row says “not confirmed” and links the official code or the DMV.

“Not confirmed” never means there is no rule. It means we have not read it in an official source yet. As of 12 November 2026, for example, we have not confirmed a length for a New Jersey points suspension in official text, whether Maryland law uses an SR-22-type filing, or the SR-22 term in several states, including Massachusetts, New Mexico, West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

How rules are read and dated

  • A read date on every state figure, in text, tables, tools and graphics. Every page ends with the date its statutes and rules were checked.
  • When a change starts. Where a rule moved recently, the page names the change and its date. Ohio’s proof-of-financial-responsibility period, for example, has been one year from the date the registrar imposed the suspension since 9 April 2025 (Ohio Rev. Code 4509.45(D), read 12 November 2026). A change never reaches back unless the law says so.
  • The statute’s own words. Where a statute says “not more than”, we quote it. Florida’s point suspensions are “for a period of not more than 30 days” at 12 points in 12 months, not more than 3 months at 18 in 18 months, and not more than 1 year at 24 in 36 months (Fla. Stat. 322.27(3), read 12 November 2026). A DMV’s usual practice is noted separately, as the DMV’s.
  • “May” stays “may”. New York’s rule lets the DMV hold a hearing “at which suspension or revocation action may be taken” at 11 or more points in 24 months; it sets no suspension length (15 NYCRR 131.4(c), read 12 November 2026). So we don’t write “11 points means a suspension”, and we give no length the text doesn’t give.
  • Silence is not a rule. When a section says nothing on a point, such as whether a lapse in an SR-22 restarts the clock, we write “the text we read does not say”, not “it doesn’t”.
  • Reader links on official sites. Links go to the legislature’s, agency’s or court’s own site, so you can read the same text we did.

Three kinds of “how long”, kept apart

“How long do points last?” has at least three answers, and they are often mixed up. We never give one number for all three:

  1. The count window: the period in which points or convictions are added up toward a suspension, such as 24 months by violation date in New York.
  2. How long it shows on the record: how long a conviction appears on the driving record the state discloses. In California that is 3, 7 or 10 years depending on the offense (Cal. Veh. Code 1808(b), read 12 November 2026), which is longer than the 12, 24 and 36-month counting windows in 12810.5.
  3. Decay: rules that remove points or make older points count for less, such as Pennsylvania’s 3 points off for each 12 months without a violation (75 Pa.C.S. 1545, read 11 November 2026).

How the tools work

Our tools show the rule as written and do plain arithmetic on what you enter. The points and suspension checker adds up the points for the tickets you enter under your state’s schedule, sets each total beside each threshold the state names, and says whether your entries reach that number (“reaches it” or “does not reach it”), with what the statute says happens there, its section and read date. The SR-22 period lookup shows the state’s filing, its term in words, what starts the clock and the lapse rule. The tickets and insurance lookup shows what a state’s law says insurers may use.

No tool gives a verdict or a date. None says “you will be suspended”, gives a suspension date or an SR-22 end date, a fine for your ticket, or an insurance price or percentage. Each lists what it can’t see: a court’s own order, a conviction not yet entered, an out-of-state record not yet reported, a DMV hearing, a course not yet credited. A state we have not read in official text is not in a tool, or shows “not confirmed”. The court’s or the DMV’s letter controls.

Each tool is built from a written specification: every input, every rule row with its section and read date, and every formula. Before a tool goes live, each formula is tested against answers worked out by hand from the statute, including the edges where a total sits exactly on a threshold or a ticket falls just outside a window, and the tool must match every one. Default entries are a plainly labelled example, and the page beside the tool works through that example by hand.

How pages are checked

After a page is written, a separate fact-check compares every point value, threshold, window, suspension length, course limit, filing term, fee and date with its source, and reworks every sum. Each state’s row must agree across its state page, the 51-state tables, the tools and the front page. A final review looks for errors, gaps and anything that could read as a verdict on someone’s own ticket. A page with a serious problem still open does not go out.

How often rules are rechecked

  • State rows (points, thresholds, windows, suspension lengths, course rules, SR-22 and FR-44 terms, fees): every three months, and again after each state’s legislative session. New York, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington and Virginia come first, because their rules changed recently or have changes pending.
  • California and Colorado: on 2 January 2027, after California’s failure-to-appear change and Colorado’s course waiver take effect (both on or before 1 January 2027).
  • The compact member chart: each April (the chart we use is dated April 2026).
  • 49 CFR 383 and 384: whenever the Federal Register shows a change.
  • Everything else: at least every six months, and sooner when we learn a source has changed.

A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed. Between rechecks a law can change without our knowing, which is why each state figure shows the day we read it.

How we treat common claims

Lines repeated across the web are reported as claims and checked against the text. We don’t name who said them. Some we have checked:

  • “A ticket in Texas adds points.” Texas has had no point system since 1 September 2019; it counts convictions: 4 in 12 months or 7 in 24 (Tex. Transp. Code 521.292, read 11 November 2026).
  • “An SR-22 is always 3 years.” Not everywhere. Ohio’s is 1 year since 9 April 2025 (Ohio Rev. Code 4509.45(D)), Texas’s is 2 years from the most recent conviction (Tex. Transp. Code 601.056 and the Texas DPS), and New York has had no such filing since 1 February 1957 (N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law 346), all read 12 November 2026. See our SR-22 rules by state.
  • “Traffic school wipes the ticket.” It depends on the state: a dismissal, a conviction kept confidential, a point credit, or nothing. For a commercial license holder, federal law bars a state from masking, deferring or diverting a conviction in any vehicle (49 CFR 384.226, read 12 November 2026). See traffic school by state.
  • “CDL holders must report every out-of-state ticket to their state.” That duty ended on 22 July 2026 (91 FR 37047). Written notice to the employer within 30 days of a conviction remains (49 CFR 383.31), both read 12 November 2026.
  • “Insurance goes up X% after a ticket.” Figures like these come from insurers and comparison sites, not from the law. We don’t use them. We say what each state’s law lets insurers do, as our tickets and insurance page explains.

Our limits

We read statutes, administrative rules and agency pages, not every local court rule, county fine schedule or unpublished DMV practice. Fines are often set by a court or county, so pages give statutory ranges and statewide schedules only where we read them and point you to the court. No check catches everything, so please tell us if you find a mistake. Fixes are logged on our corrections page, and our editorial policy covers the rest of how pages are made.

Before you rely on a rule here, check it against the ticket, the court’s or the DMV’s letter and the state’s own pages. If a date on a letter may be close, don’t wait for a recheck of ours.

Statutes and rules on this page checked on 12 November 2026.