The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) assigns points to a driver license after traffic violations to penalize poor driving behaviors. The points system is designed to identify high-risk drivers and enforce consequences if too many points accumulate.
Many clients and potential clients will ask, “How long do points stay on your license in NY?” Many drivers who face the consequences of traffic violations share this concern. In this brief guide, our NYC traffic violations lawyers will try to provide some explore clarity and guidance regarding how this point system works in NY.
In New York, points for violations won’t permanently be counted against you but they can impact your driving record significantly if you accumulate too many of them in a certain period of time. Points for moving violations attach on your driving record to the date the ticket was issued. If DMV sees that you’ve accumulated too many points on your NY driving record in any single 18 month period then you can expect there to be some consequences. It’s important to note that no points are added to your record until you are actually convicted of a point carrying violation. This means that you can suffer the consequences years after a ticket was issued if it took that long to complete a case and it turns out you accumulated too many points in the 18 month period back when you first were issued the ticket.
Accumulating points and convictions on your license can lead to increased insurance rates, hefty fines/assessments, and, in some cases, the suspension or revocation of your driving privileges. Thus, understanding how long points stay active on your license is crucial when deciding how to handle a traffic violation.
The Driver Responsibility Assessment is a mandatory fee imposed by the New York State DMV over three years for drivers convicted of certain traffic offenses or who accumulate six or more points on their driving record within 18 months. This fee is required in addition to any fines, penalties, or surcharges associated with a traffic conviction.
You are required to pay the Driver Responsibility Assessment if:
This assessment applies regardless of whether New York State, another jurisdiction, issues your driver’s license, or if you do not possess a driver’s license.
While you can’t erase convictions and the points attached to these convictions once they are on your record, there are strategies to help avoid those points and to reduce the impact of them if you are unable to avoid them altogether.
New York allows drivers to take a DMV-approved defensive driving course to reduce up to four points from their record. This course can also offer a mandatory 10% reduction in the base rate of your auto liability and collision insurance premiums each year for three years.
The best strategy to manage points is to avoid tickets altogether. Stay updated on traffic laws, drive safely and understand the consequences of traffic violations.
Legal assistance might be necessary if you are facing a conviction that may add points on your license. Feifer & Greenberg LLP focuses in traffic law and can offer guidance and representation for speeding tickets to help mitigate the impact.
Understanding “How long do points stay on your license in NY?” is more than knowing how DMV calculates your point total. It’s about comprehensively managing your driving behavior and taking proactive steps to ensure your driving record remains as clean as possible. Whether through safe driving, defensive driving courses when needed or through good legal advice, avoiding points and maintaining a low point total makes you safer, helps keep the road safer and provides an individual with some protection from the costs and penalties associated with convictions and points.
For more information or legal assistance with traffic violations, consider reaching out to Feifer & Greenberg LLP, specialists in New York traffic law. We are ready to help you navigate the complexities of the DMV and protect your driving privileges.
Only if the jurisdiction where you received your ticket has a reciprocal agreement with the NY DMV. Currently, only two such cities do this: Quebec and Ontario.
Not always. In some situations, it will be automatically imposed by the DMV. In other situations, it will be at the judge’s discretion (at the NYC TVB, it’s the judge’s discretion). Whether automatic or not, 11 is the number to watch. Note that with a defensive driving class in the mix, one could accumulate up to 14 points and thus remain under 11 total as four can be deducted.
Pleading guilty to a violation means you will get whatever points come with that particular violation.
Taking a class allows you to reduce the amount of points calculated for an 18-month period by four. A class in NY though won’t be considered when calculating your point total for the purposes of a driver assessment. It will be for suspension calculations only.
We have organized a statewide network of attorneys. In our network are both attorneys who work for Feifer & Greenberg and attorneys who work for other firms that regularly provide of-counsel representation to our clients. This statewide network allows us to match clients in a particular county or court with local attorneys who regularly appear on similar matters in the same county or court. It enables us to help clients anywhere in New York State and in our opinion provide particularly effective and affordable representation for our clients. Local attorneys can draw on their particular local experiences and, with travel time and expense removed from the equation, help us keep our legal fees low.
We recommend fighting almost all tickets. Even if the current NY traffic tickets aren’t particularly harmful, you have an incentive to keep your record clean for the future. Convictions quickly lead to surcharges, insurance increases and other complications. You should strongly consider any decision to pay a ticket without fighting.
Our lawyers are experienced, prepared attorneys who understand the nuances of fighting traffic tickets. Experience, preparation and good decision making help us to help our clients avoid points, surcharges, insurance increases and the other negatives that can easily result from a traffic ticket.
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