In Virginia, twelve demerit points in twelve months does not suspend your licence. It sends you to a driver improvement clinic and puts you on probation. The number that suspends a Virginia licence is eighteen points in twelve months, and it is written in a different section of the code from the one everybody quotes.
That single fact is the reason this page exists. Point systems are the most thoroughly public part of the whole SR-22 subject — the schedules are printed in state statutes and on agency pages, in tables, with numbers next to them — and they are also the part most often summarised wrongly, because the summary gets copied instead of the statute. What follows is six states read line by line: what each violation costs you, when the count starts, how long a point survives, what happens at the threshold, and whether the state then makes you file anything.
If you have not read what an SR-22 actually is, start there — it is a filing your insurer makes with the state, not a kind of policy, and half the confusion on this topic comes from treating it as a product.
Where the threshold really sits, and why the popular number is wrong
Virginia is the clearest case because its own code splits the job across three sections.
Va. Code § 46.2-498 is the twelve-point section, and this is all it does:
"Whenever the driving record of any person who is eighteen years old or older shows an accumulation of at least twelve demerit points based on convictions for traffic offenses committed within a period of twelve consecutive months, or at least eighteen demerit points based on convictions for traffic offenses committed within a period of twenty-four consecutive months, respectively, the Commissioner shall direct the person to attend a driver improvement clinic."
A clinic. Then § 46.2-499 adds six months of licence probation, and a suspension follows only if you are convicted of something else during that probation — ninety days for a six-point offence, sixty for a four-point one, forty-five for a three-point one.
The actual point-accumulation suspension lives in § 46.2-506(B), which requires "at least 18 demerit points based on convictions ... committed within any 12 consecutive months, or at least 24 demerit points ... within any 24 consecutive months" and then gives the Commissioner a choice: suspend for ninety days plus a clinic, or "require such person to enroll in the Intelligent Speed Assistance Program established pursuant to § 46.2-507 for a period of nine months and satisfactorily complete a driver improvement clinic."
So Virginia has two twelve-point rules and one eighteen-point rule, and only the last one takes your licence. Any page that tells you "twelve points and you're suspended in Virginia" has compressed three sections into one sentence and lost the answer.
The date the counting starts from is different in every state
Every point system is an arithmetic problem with a rolling window, and a window needs a start date. No two of the six states measure from the same event. This table is ours, built by reading each provision:
| State |
The date the count runs from |
Where it says so |
Read |
| Missouri |
Date of conviction |
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 302.304.2 — "points shall be accumulated on the date of conviction" |
2026-09-02 |
| Florida |
Date of the offence |
Fla. Stat. § 322.27(4) — the department "shall use the offense date of all convictions" |
2026-09-02 |
| Virginia |
Date the offence was committed |
Va. Code § 46.2-493 — points "valid for a period of two years from the date the offense was committed" |
2026-09-02 |
| South Carolina |
Date of the most recent violation, counting backwards |
S.C. Code § 56-1-750 — full value for the twelve months "including and immediately preceding the last violation" |
2026-09-02 |
| New Jersey |
Date the violation is posted to your record |
NJ MVC surcharge brochure — "The accumulation of points shall be calculated as of the date the point violation is posted to the driver history record" |
2026-09-02 |
| New York |
Date of the act |
N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 503(4)(a) — six or more points "for acts committed within an eighteen month period" |
2026-09-02 |
Sources: revisor.mo.gov, leg.state.fl.us, law.lis.virginia.gov, scstatehouse.gov, nj.gov, nysenate.gov.
Two observations that none of those sources makes, and that you can check against the table.
The gap between offence date and conviction date is the driver's, not the state's. In Florida and Virginia a ticket you fight for eight months lands on the record dated to the day you got it, so a slow court case cannot push a violation out of somebody else's window and into a friendlier one. In Missouri it lands on the day of conviction, so the same delay moves it — and can move it into a window with two other convictions in it. Same conduct, opposite effect, because of a preposition.
New Jersey is the only one of the six that counts from an administrative act rather than a legal one. Posting is something the MVC does, on its own timetable, after a court reports the conviction. That is a date no driver can see coming and none of them can influence.
What a single ticket is actually worth
Three of these states put the schedule in the statute itself. That matters: a value in the code changes only when the legislature changes it, and the change is dated.
South Carolina's schedule is S.C. Code § 56-1-720, and it grades speeding in three bands — 2 points for no more than 10 mph over, 4 points for more than 10 but less than 25, and 6 points for 25 or more over the posted limit. Reckless driving, passing a stopped school bus and property-damage hit-and-run are 6 each. The most recent addition is "Distracted driving (second or subsequent offense)" at 2 points, inserted by 2025 Act No. 40 effective 1 September 2025 — under a year old at the time of writing.
Missouri's § 302.302 is unusual for splitting each offence by which government prosecuted it: speeding is "In violation of a state law 3 points" and "In violation of a county or municipal ordinance 2 points"; leaving the scene is 12 points under state law and 6 under a local ordinance. Its catch-all is 2 points for any unlisted moving violation, with a carve-out of 1 point for a municipal stop-sign violation with no accident. Subsection 3 then adds "an additional two points ... when personal injury or property damage results," but only "if found to be warranted and certified by the reporting court" — a discretionary uplift most summaries drop. The version read here took effect on 28 August 2026.
Florida's § 322.27(3)(d) sets 3 points for speeding up to 15 mph over, 4 above that, 4 for reckless driving, 6 for a railroad-crossing violation, and 3 for "All other moving violations." Virginia does it the other way round: § 46.2-492(D) hands the Commissioner a three-tier scale — six, four and three demerit points — and caps it, requiring a scale "not to exceed six demerit points for any single conviction," but leaves the assignment of individual offences to the agency. And § 46.2-492(E) contains a rule worth knowing before you plead: where a person is convicted of two or more offences committed on a single occasion, "he shall be assessed points for one offense only," at the higher value.
Five states were added to this page on a second pass, and three of them grade a ticket in a way none of the original six does. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-4,182 splits inattention into a four-rung ladder — 6 points for "Willful reckless driving", 5 for "Reckless driving", 4 for "Careless driving", 3 for "Negligent driving" — which the DMV's point-system page glosses in parentheses as "(deliberate & intentional)", "(rash, heedless, dangerous)", "(inattentive, forgetful, inconsiderate)" and "(indifferent, offhand, neglectful)". Its lowest speeding band starts at "More than five miles per hour", so 1 to 5 mph over is worth nothing, achieved by omission rather than by a zero. Md. Code, Transp. § 16-402(a) charges one point for "Any moving violation not listed below and not contributing to an accident" and three for the same violation "contributing to an accident". And Cal. Veh. Code § 12810(g) is the only provision read for this page that charges a point with no conviction behind it: "A traffic accident in which the operator is deemed by the department to be responsible shall be given a value of one point." It then charges a commercial driver half again as much for the same ticket, valuing each point at "one and one-half times the value otherwise required" under § 12810.5(b)(2). Arizona's § 28-3306(A)(3) and Maine's § 2458(2)(B) assign nothing at all, acting instead on violations committed "with such frequency as to indicate a disrespect for traffic laws" — almost the same sentence in both states.
The camera exception, which is a rule about insurance as well as points
Florida's schedule carries a clause that goes further than points, and it appears twice in the same subsection. On camera-enforced speeding, § 322.27(3)(d)5.c. provides that points may not be imposed, and then adds: "In addition, a violation of s. 316.1895 or s. 316.183 when enforced by a traffic infraction enforcement officer may not be used for purposes of setting motor vehicle insurance rates." The identical sentence appears for red-light camera violations at § 322.27(3)(d)6. and for school-bus camera violations at § 322.27(3)(d)4.c.
New Jersey reaches the same result more quietly: its published point schedule lists N.J.S.A. 39:4-81 at 2 points, then prints a second row reading "Red Light Camera- 0 pts." with a footnote, "No points assessed for red light camera violation."
If a camera ticket is one of the things you are counting towards a threshold, in these two states it is not counted at all — and in Florida the statute says it cannot be rated either.
How long a point survives, and the three ways states let one die
There is no common answer, and the mechanisms are structurally different, not just numerically different.
Decay by age. South Carolina's § 56-1-750 is the cleanest: points from the twelve months up to your last violation count at full value, "those accrued from twelve to twenty-four months preceding the last violation shall be counted at one half their established value," and anything older "shall not be counted." Virginia's § 46.2-493 uses a flat two years — with an exception that catches people out: points already used as the basis for a suspension or probation "shall remain valid until the suspension, revocation, probationary period, or other action has terminated."
Decay by clean driving. Missouri's § 302.306 reduces your total by one-third after one full year without a moving-violation conviction, by one-half of the remainder after a second, and withdraws the rest after a third. New Jersey gives a flat minus three for each twelve consecutive months violation-free and suspension-free.
Deduction by course. South Carolina takes four points off for the National Safety Council course, once in any three-year period, under § 56-1-770. Virginia's § 46.2-498(C) subtracts five demerit points for a clinic and awards safe driving points where you have fewer than five to remove, with a hard ceiling: "No person shall be allowed to accumulate more than five safe driving points." New Jersey allows minus two for a Defensive Driving Program once every five years and minus three for a Driver Improvement Program once every two.
Two things follow that the pages themselves do not spell out. Missouri does not zero your record when the suspension ends: § 302.304.10 provides that on reinstatement "the accumulated point value shall be reduced to four points," and § 302.304.11 blocks any credit for time served — "No credit toward reduction of points shall be given during periods of suspension or revocation or any period of driving under a limited driving privilege." You come back onto the road four points from where you started. And New Jersey's suspension page is explicit that nothing ever leaves: "the MVC keeps a permanent record of all the points you've earned" — the deductions offset a total that stays on file.
The course that lowers your points and not your bill
This is the part that costs real money and is almost never reported, and two states put it in writing.
New York charges a Driver Responsibility Assessment under Veh. & Traf. Law § 503(4). Six or more points for acts committed within eighteen months makes you liable, and the amount is "one hundred dollars per year for a three-year period for the first six points on a driver's record and an additional twenty-five dollars per year for each additional point." Fail to pay and § 503(4)(d) suspends the licence until the balance clears. Then comes paragraph (e):
"Any completion of a motor vehicle accident prevention course approved pursuant to article twelve-B of this chapter shall not serve to reduce the calculation of points on a person's driving record for the purposes of this section."
New Jersey says the same thing about its own surcharge. The MVC's 2021 surcharge brochure sets the trigger at six or more points accumulated in the preceding three years, at "$150, plus $25 for each additional point," billed annually for three years — and then:
"Points reductions are issued for each 12-consecutive month period of violation-free or suspension-free driving, or completion of an approved license or driver improvement or defensive driving course. These points reductions are not considered when assessing a driver's three-year record for surcharge purposes."
Read those two together and you get a finding neither state advertises: the defensive driving course reduces the number on your licence and not the number on your bill. In New Jersey that is true even of the reduction you earn by driving cleanly for a year. The course is still worth taking if you are near a suspension threshold. It is worth nothing at all against the assessment, and anybody selling it to you as a way to cut the surcharge is selling you something the agency has already said in print does not work.
Nebraska writes the same trap into the timing instead of the tariff. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-4,188 gives a two-point credit for a department-approved driver improvement course of "at least four hours of instruction", allowed "only once within a five-year period", and then closes it:
"This section shall only apply to persons who have successfully completed such driver improvement course prior to committing any traffic offense for which a conviction and point assessment against their driving record would otherwise result in a total of twelve or more points assessed against their record."
The same section bars the credit to anyone "required to enroll in a driver improvement course pursuant to section 60-4,130, 60-4,130.03, or 60-4,183" — and § 60-4,183 is the point-revocation section, which orders exactly such a course as a condition of reinstatement. The DMV's point-revocation page says it in a parenthesis: the four-hour course you must finish after the date of revocation "WILL NOT give you a 2-point credit on your driving record". One syllabus, one certificate, and its value turns entirely on whether you sat it before or after the twelfth point landed. California uses a third mechanism again: Veh. Code § 1808.7 makes a first traffic violator school completion in any 18-month period "confidential" and bars any point where "the conviction is confidential" — but (b)(4) withdraws that whenever the conviction "would result in a violation point count of more than one point".
Does crossing the line require a filing? Eleven states, five answers
Here is the master table, built from the sections named in it rather than from any secondary summary. "Threshold" is the point at which the state acts on accumulation alone.
| State |
Threshold on accumulation |
How long points count |
Filing required to get the licence back? |
Source, read 2026-09-02 |
| Missouri |
8 points / 18 months → suspension; 12/12, 18/24 or 24/36 → revocation |
Cut by 1/3, then 1/2, then withdrawn after three clean years; reset to 4 on reinstatement |
Yes, by statute. Reinstatement runs on "proof of financial responsibility ... in accordance with chapter 303"; without it "a suspension shall continue in effect for two years" |
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 302.304 |
| South Carolina |
12 points → suspension, graduated 3, 4, 5 or 6 months by total |
Half value at 12–24 months, dropped after 24 |
Yes. § 56-9-500 keeps licence and registration suspended "until he shall give and thereafter maintain proof of financial responsibility" |
S.C. Code § 56-9-500 |
| Florida |
12/12 months → up to 30 days; 18/18 → up to 3 months; 24/36 → up to 1 year |
No expiry stated in § 322.27; the windows are 12, 18 and 36 months, and one 3-point deduction follows a first reinstatement |
Yes, and it reaches your plates. § 324.072 names s. 322.27 by number and suspends every registration in your name unless you give and maintain proof |
Fla. Stat. § 324.072 |
| Virginia |
12/12 or 18/24 → clinic and probation only; 18/12 or 24/24 → 90-day suspension or nine months of speed assistance |
Two years from the offence date |
Not on the face of the statute. § 46.2-411(B) lists only §§ 46.2-389, 46.2-391, 46.2-391.1 and 46.2-417; the point sections are not among them |
Va. Code § 46.2-411 |
| New Jersey |
6 points / 3 years → surcharge; 12 points → suspension |
Permanent record, offset by deductions |
No certificate named; the surcharge is the consequence, billed three years running |
NJ MVC |
| New York |
6 points / 18 months → Driver Responsibility Assessment |
The 18-month window runs on act dates |
No certificate named in § 503; unpaid assessment is itself a suspension |
N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 503 |
| Nebraska |
12 points / 2 years, counted back from the last violation → revocation; 6 months, or 3 years if revoked again within 5 |
Convictions stay 5 years; the counting window is 2 |
Yes, and it follows you. Proof stays on file "for three (3) years from the date of eligibility for reinstatement – regardless of your state of residence" |
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-4,183 · Nebraska DMV |
| Maryland |
3 points → warning letter; 5 → driver improvement programme; 8 → suspension; 12 → revocation, within any 2-year period |
2 years, from the date of violation |
No future-proof certificate in the points subtitle. § 17-106 wants certified evidence of replaced security after a lapse, a different trigger |
Md. Code, Transp. § 16-404 |
| California |
4 / 12 months, 6 / 24 or 8 / 36 → prima facie negligent operator; 6, 8 or 10 for a class A or B licensee who appears at a hearing |
Not stated in § 12810 |
Discretionary, and the statute names the length. § 12810.5(c): the department "may require" proof, "maintained with the department for three years following that date of reinstatement" |
Cal. Veh. Code § 12810.5 |
| Arizona |
No number in the statute; ADOT publishes 8 or more in any 12 months → Traffic Survival School "or your driving privilege may be suspended up to 12 months" |
Not stated in the schedule read |
Not on this ground. Article 3, "Proof of Financial Responsibility for the Future", runs on unsatisfied judgments (§§ 28-4071 to 28-4075) |
A.R.S. § 28-3306 · ADOT, 29 May 2026 |
| Maine |
No number in the statute; § 2458(3) delegates the schedule and the "designated level of point accumulation" to Secretary of State rules |
Delegated to the same rules |
Yes, on any conviction, at discretion. § 1603(1): the Secretary of State "may suspend ... until that person gives proof"; § 1603(3) then requires 3 years |
29-A M.R.S. § 1603 |
Four things fall out of that table that are worth more than the table.
Florida is the only one of the six whose financial-responsibility chapter names the point-system section by number. Section 324.072(1) opens: "Upon the suspension or revocation of a license pursuant to s. 322.26 or s. 322.27, the department shall suspend the registration for all motor vehicles registered in the name of the licensee." It then offers a way out that nobody mentions — the department may not suspend the registration if you already had the required limits "on the date of the latest offense that caused the suspension or revocation." Being insured on the day of the ticket is a defence to losing your plates.
Missouri's filing requirement is a condition, not a countdown. Section 302.304.6 provides that if the person "fails to maintain proof of financial responsibility in accordance with chapter 303 ... the person's driving privilege and license shall be resuspended." The certificate itself is defined by § 303.170 as "the written certificate of any insurance carrier duly authorized to do business in this state certifying that there is in effect a motor vehicle liability policy." And Missouri draws a line other states do not: § 303.042(5) says that for an ordinary uninsured-vehicle suspension the director "shall not require an individual to file a certificate of insurance as provided in section 303.170 or section 303.180 or some other form of high-risk insurance," excluding accident cases. Points can put you into the certificate; simply having no insurance, in that lane, does not.
Virginia writes the form's name into the statute. Section 46.2-439, as amended in 2025, says the certificate "shall be an American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators Uniform Financial Responsibility Form (SR-22), or Virginia Uniform Financial Responsibility Form (FR-44), depending on the circumstances." Which circumstances is exactly what § 46.2-411(B) answers, and its list is a closed one. If your Virginia suspension came from points rather than from one of those four sections, ask the DMV to point at the authority before you buy a filing. The same closed-list logic is what separates a points case from SR-22 after a DUI, and it is why the DWI-versus-DUI question turns out to be about which statute you were convicted under rather than which word appears on the ticket.
Maine runs two different three-year clocks in one section, and neither subsection mentions the other. § 1603(3) makes the driver "maintain proof of financial responsibility for at least 3 years" after "reinstatement of that person's license and registration". Two subsections later, § 1603(5) lets the Secretary of State "waive the demand for proof of financial responsibility after 3 years from the date of demand for proof." A demand lands at the start of a case and a reinstatement at the end of it, so in a long suspension those dates sit years apart. This site keeps finding that disagreement between an agency and its statute; here both halves are in the statute. If the question is whether your state uses this instrument at all, the states that do not use an SR-22 is the shorter road, and reinstatement fees by state has the charges.
Warning letters, and whether asking for a hearing stops the clock
Two procedural steps sit between a running total and a suspension. Both are legislated, and both are legislated differently.
Three of these states — Maryland, Missouri and Maine — carry an express pre-suspension warning in the text of the law, and each measures it on a different axis. Maryland pegs it to an absolute total: a warning letter at 3 points, under § 16-404(a)(1). Missouri pegs it to a rate — § 302.304.1 has the director notify "by ordinary mail any operator of the point value charged against the operator's record when the record shows four or more points have been accumulated in a twelve-month period." Maine pegs it to a proportion, and is the only one of the three whose warning survives a rewrite of its own schedule: "Notice of assessment of points must be given when the point accumulation reaches 50% of the number at which suspension is authorized."
Then comes the hearing. Five of these states were read on that question, and they split on the only part of it that matters to someone who still has to get to work on Monday.
| State |
Time to ask |
Does asking stop the suspension? |
Source, read 2026-09-02 |
| Maryland |
10 days after the notice is sent, "Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays excepted" |
Yes. The notice bites at the end of that period only "[u]nless a hearing is requested" |
Transp. § 16-404(b) |
| California |
10 days, and the notice must make the deadline "prominent" |
No. "An application for a hearing does not stay the action by the department for which the notice is given" |
Veh. Code § 14100 |
| Maine |
10 days from the effective date of the suspension; decision due inside 30 days |
No unless the chapter says so: "A request for a hearing does not stay a suspension unless specifically provided for in this chapter" |
29-A M.R.S. § 2483 |
| Arizona |
No deadline stated on this ground; once asked, the hearing is set "within sixty days" and may be held "in person, by telephone or by videoconference" |
Not stated here; on the medical ground § 28-3306(H) says the request "does not stay a summary suspension" |
A.R.S. § 28-3306 |
| Nebraska |
Not offered: the director "shall ... summarily revoke the operator's license" |
— |
§ 60-4,183 |
Two findings come out of that grid. In California the hearing is not just a defence, it is a different rule of arithmetic. § 12810.5(a) requires the department, where the driver "requests and appears at a hearing", to "give due consideration to the amount of use or mileage traveled in the operation of a motor vehicle" — a high-mileage argument written into the statute. And § 12810.5(b)(1) lifts the negligent-operator threshold for a class A or B licensee from four points in twelve months to six, but only for a driver "who requests and appears at a hearing": not asking forfeits the higher number. Section 14101 then removes the hearing altogether where "the action by the department is made mandatory by this code".
In Maryland the hearing officer can decline to suspend, on employment grounds. Section 16-405 provides that where suspension or revocation "would affect adversely the employment or opportunity for employment of a licensee, the hearing officer may: (1) Decline to order the suspension or revocation; or (2) Modify the suspension or revocation." That is wider than the hardship licence most states offer: it is a power not to act, rather than a power to permit driving while the action runs. Against it sits the bluntest of the notice provisions read for this page, Arizona's § 28-3318: "Service of the notice provided by this section is complete on mailing," and "[t]he state is not required to prove actual receipt of the notice". California defaults the other way, § 13953 holding an order back until "30 days after the giving of written notice thereof to the person affected". In one state the clock starts when the envelope leaves; in the other, a month after it arrives.
No premium appears on this page. These are fees and assessments set by statute or published by the agency, and they are the part of the bill that is knowable in advance.
- Missouri: a $20 reinstatement fee "which shall be in addition to all other fees provided by law" (§ 302.304.12).
- Florida: a "nonrefundable reinstatement fee of $15" under § 324.071, paid once no matter how many licences and registrations are being restored — and a rule that after certain reinstatements the department will not renew for three years unless you keep complying.
- South Carolina: $100 for the special restricted licence that lets you drive to work or study during a point suspension — the fee is in § 56-1-740(B)(3), and § 56-1-740(B)(1) grants it only on a showing that the person "lives further than one mile from his place of employment or place of education."
- New York: $100 a year for three years at six points, plus $25 a year per extra point.
- New Jersey: $150 plus $25 per point over six, billed annually for three years, plus a $100 restoration fee for each privilege suspended.
The pattern across the five is that the state's own charge is small in Missouri and Florida, moderate in South Carolina, and in New Jersey and New York it is the largest single predictable number in the whole episode — because those two states turned the point system into a revenue instrument instead of a suspension trigger. Anyone comparing states on "how strict is the points rule" is measuring the wrong axis.
What to ask for, and how to read it
Two documents, in this order.
Ask your motor vehicle agency for your driving record abstract — Missouri, Florida, Virginia, New Jersey, New York and South Carolina all issue one — and check three things on it that a total does not tell you: the date recorded against each conviction, whether it is the offence date or the conviction date, and whether any point deduction you were promised has actually been applied.
Then read it against the statute, not a summary. Every schedule cited above is linked in this page. If your state is not one of the six, the equivalent sections are usually findable by searching your state code for "point system" and, separately, for "proof of financial responsibility" — because as this page shows, those two rules very often live in different chapters and do not cross-reference each other. For how the resulting filing period is measured once one exists, where each state starts counting sets the anchor dates side by side, and how long you need an SR-22 covers the restart conditions.
What I could not verify
New York's and New Jersey's suspension thresholds in their own regulations. New Jersey's twelve-point suspension is stated on the MVC's own suspension page, which is what is cited above, but the underlying rules are in N.J.A.C. 13:19 — the brochure cites "N.J.A.C. 13:19-13.1, et seq." for the surcharge — and the New Jersey administrative code is not reachable from this server. New York's point-based suspension threshold is not in § 503 either; it is set by regulation, the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations are published through a commercial host rather than a state one, and dmv.ny.gov refuses connections here. Only the statutory assessment in § 503(4) is quoted above, because it is the part I could open.
Whether Virginia's DMV requires a filing in practice after a point suspension. What is verified is what § 46.2-411(B) says: proof of financial responsibility in the future is required before restoring a licence suspended or revoked under §§ 46.2-389, 46.2-391, 46.2-391.1 or 46.2-417. The point-accumulation sections are not in that list. Whether the DMV nonetheless conditions a particular restoration on an SR-22 is an administrative question the code does not answer, and it should be put to the DMV directly, quoting the section.
Missouri's and South Carolina's agency descriptions of these rules. Both statutes are quoted from the legislature's own text. Neither agency's explanatory page was reachable in a form that could be quoted accurately, so nothing on this page rests on one.
Nebraska's and Arizona's own hosts, and Arizona's rule text. nebraskalegislature.gov refuses connections from this server at the network layer, so §§ 60-4,182, 60-4,183 and 60-4,188 are cited above to the Internet Archive captures of those same URLs dated 21, 12 and 14 January 2026. azdot.gov returns 403 here, so the ADOT points table is quoted from the capture of that same URL dated 29 May 2026. The Arizona Secretary of State's PDF of Title 17 of the Administrative Code — where the schedule is actually codified, and where the old R17-4-404 was recodified as R17-5-404 — returns 403 both live and through the Archive. So no Arizona rule text is quoted here, the Arizona row is the agency's table rather than the code behind it, and how long a point survives in Arizona or Maine is not stated at all: neither statute assigns the points and neither set of rules could be opened.
Whether Maryland has a points filing elsewhere in its code. What is verified is that §§ 16-401 to 16-406 name no insurance certificate and that § 17-106 conditions restoring a registration on "evidence of replaced security on a form as prescribed by the Administration and certified by an insurer or insurance producer" — a remedy for a lapse, not proof for the future. Other titles were not searched exhaustively, so put the question to the Administration rather than rely on an absence. Separately, Arizona's § 28-3306(A)(3) and Maine's § 2458(2)(B) are almost word for word identical; whether they descend from a common model act is drafting history neither statute answers.
Whether the other eight states warn before they act. The warning provisions above are quoted from the three states whose statutes were read on that point. Missouri's, Maryland's and Maine's are there because they are in the text; the other eight states on this page were not searched for an equivalent, so read the absence of a row as an absence of a search rather than as an absence of a warning.
Nebraska's second-offence revocation period. The three-year figure for a second point revocation inside five years is on the DMV's own page and cited to it. It is not in § 60-4,183, which fixes six months and lets the trial court's abstract order longer; the rule behind the agency's figure was not located.
Your own total. No page can tell you how many points you have. Only the abstract can, and the abstract is the only document any of this can be checked against.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many points before I need an SR-22?
There is no national number, in two of the eleven states read here the number is not in the statute at all, and in some states there is no filing at the end of it. Nebraska revokes at twelve points in two years and then wants proof on file for three years from the date you become eligible to reinstate, whatever state you live in. Maryland legislates the whole ladder and names no certificate. Missouri suspends at eight points in eighteen months and conditions reinstatement on proof of financial responsibility filed under chapter 303. South Carolina suspends at twelve points and § 56-9-500 keeps the licence suspended until proof is given and maintained. Florida suspends at twelve points in twelve months and § 324.072 also suspends every registration in your name. Virginia does not suspend at twelve points at all — it sends you to a clinic — and its proof requirement in § 46.2-411(B) names four sections that do not include the point provisions. Check your own state's two chapters separately: the point system and the financial responsibility rules are usually not in the same place.
Do points come off my record automatically?
It depends on the mechanism your state uses, and there are three different ones. South Carolina's § 56-1-750 halves points between twelve and twenty-four months old and stops counting them after twenty-four. Virginia's § 46.2-493 makes them valid two years from the date the offence was committed. Missouri's § 302.306 cuts your total by a third after one clean year, half the remainder after a second, and clears it after a third. New Jersey's MVC states that it "keeps a permanent record of all the points you've earned" and applies deductions against it rather than deleting entries.
Will a defensive driving course get me out of the surcharge?
No, in the two states that charge one and say so in writing. New York's Veh. & Traf. Law § 503(4)(e) provides that completing an approved accident prevention course "shall not serve to reduce the calculation of points on a person's driving record for the purposes of this section," meaning the Driver Responsibility Assessment. New Jersey's MVC surcharge brochure says point reductions from a course, or from a violation-free year, "are not considered when assessing a driver's three-year record for surcharge purposes." The course can still keep you below a suspension threshold. It does not touch the bill.
Does a red-light camera ticket count towards my points?
Not in Florida or New Jersey. Florida's § 322.27(3)(d)6. bars points for a camera-enforced signal violation and adds that it "may not be used for purposes of setting motor vehicle insurance rates," with the same wording applied to camera-enforced speeding and school-bus violations. New Jersey's published point schedule lists the red-light camera row at zero points with the footnote "No points assessed for red light camera violation." Other states may treat them differently; check your own schedule rather than assuming.
Is a points-triggered filing cheaper than one triggered by a DUI?
The state's own charges are what can be compared honestly, and they are set by the cause of the suspension rather than by the label on it — $20 to reinstate in Missouri, $15 in Florida, $150 plus $25 a point for three years in New Jersey, $100 a year for three years at six points in New York. The premium underneath any filing is rated by the insurer against your individual record, no insurer publishes a rate for it, and no figure for it appears anywhere on this site. Ask for the premium and the insurer's filing charge as two separate numbers, from more than one insurer.
Can fighting one ticket keep me under the threshold?
Sometimes, and which date your state uses decides whether the delay helps or hurts. Florida computes with "the offense date of all convictions," and Virginia counts offences "committed within" the window, so winning time in court does not move the violation out of the window — only a dismissal or a reduction does. Missouri accumulates points "on the date of conviction," so a delayed case lands later and can move into or out of a rolling window. New Jersey counts from the date the violation is posted to the record, which is neither.
What does an SR-22 cost after a points suspension, and which part of it can I check?
This page names no insurer and publishes no rate, because none exists for your record until an insurer writes one. What is worth doing instead is checking whether your state requires a filing at all — Virginia's statutory list suggests a points case may not be on it — and, in Florida, whether § 324.072's exception applies to you, because a driver who already carried the required limits on the date of the last offence may keep the registrations that would otherwise be suspended. Then get three quotes, say exactly which violations are on the abstract, and ask each insurer to separate the premium from the filing fee.
