Let’s say that our hypothetical motorist holds a driver’s license in State A. He commits a traffic infraction in State B. State B assigns 5 points for such a violation. State A would assign 3 points for such a violation if it had occurred in State A.
So, when State A gets report from State B about the traffic infraction, how many points does State A assign to it’s resident license holder?
I think it goes by points where you live. In the past states did not always tell other states about tickets, especially if the states were far apart like for example Oregon and Florida. Not sure if that is still the case. Also I always heard if you got a ticket in a state that bordered your home state they would report it back to your home state.
Well, I believe now, and I don’t have a cite, that all 50 states have entered into an agreement where they will enforce out of state citations. For example, if a person who is a resident of Florida, holds a Florida drivers license, but gets a DUI in Hawaii, the state of Florida would still suspend the person’s driver’s license as a penalty. What I am unsure about is if Hawaii’s law or Florida’s law would apply. Let’s say Hawaii had a mandatory 10 year suspension of a driver’s license for first time DUI, but Florida had a 5 day suspension.
*Again, hypo, not asking for legal advice.
There’s two rival driver’s license compacts, one of which has 44 states and the other 46. Wisconsin and Michigan are the only ones that are in neither. If you get a ticket in a state that isn’t in the same compact as your home state, there’s still a chance you won’t get any points, although they do report outside of the compacts as well.
See: Driver License Compact - Wikipedia
and: Non-Resident Violator Compact - Wikipedia
Most of the states do indeed assess the points as if you had gotten the ticket at home, but not all. Some don’t report or apply minor things like speeding tickets. They also can’t assess points for violations that aren’t on the books in your home state, which is mostly an issue with things like some states banning tinted windows or radar detectors, but can also lead to odd situations with things like “careless driving” statutes that don’t exist in every state. Many states have automatic careless or reckless driving infractions if you’re speeding X amount over the limit. But if your home state doesn’t have those laws, you might get no points for the more serious violation whereas you would have if it were just simple speeding!
They all share with more serious stuff like DUI’s and license suspensions. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe in those situations you get the penalties under the laws in the state where you got the infraction and your state’s DMV will go along with it.
Some great info here. It seems like if you are in one of the lucky few states that don’t report and/or accept your specific violation to/from another state, you could tell them to piss off on collecting your fine as well.
I guess a third element is how would an insurance company in State A deal with State B’s citation that dealt with an infraction that was punished less harshly in State A. Because that’s really the big deal. A one time fine or points with a state can be dealt with. Three years of higher premiums are the practical result of a citation.
I got around the reporting issue once on a ticket I got in NYC. I called DMV and said I needed an extension to appear in court on the NYC ticket. But at the time, they had no way of tracking this so once my NJ points were put on hold, they never hit my license. Of course in theory I was supposed to call them back after my court date, but I guess that must have slipped my mind.
As a side note, if a state issues a bench warrant as the result of your failure to pay and/or appear, that warrant will be enforceable in all 50 states and will probably hit a variety of law enforcement databases.
Just sayin’.
But you probably won’t actually get arrested unless you’re in the state where the warrant was issued, and maybe not even unless you’re near the court that wants you. It’s up to the jurisdiction that issued the warrant to pay to bring you back, and hauling people across the country (or even across the state) for failure to appear for a traffic violation isn’t going to be a big priority.