California traffic school rules

Yes, once in any 18 months. When you finish a licensed traffic school course for a ticket the court has referred, Vehicle Code section 1808.7 makes that conviction confidential and adds no violation point to your driving record. A clean point count is the main reason drivers choose traffic school.

The ticket itself stays on the court's books. You still pay the court what it charges, and the court keeps the conviction in its file. Traffic school changes your DMV record. The point does not count, and the DMV does not show the conviction as an ordinary one.

Most drivers with a one-point moving violation in a personal vehicle can ask for traffic school. The answer depends on four things: the license you hold, the vehicle you were driving, the violation on the citation, and whether you used traffic school in the 18 months before this ticket.

On the license, Vehicle Code section 42005 names the noncommercial class C, M1 and M2 licenses, the everyday car and motorcycle licenses most California drivers carry. This page answers the other three further down.

Our eligibility checker walks through each of those questions with the law behind it, so this page keeps to the short version. Your court makes the final call.

Traffic school is for one-point violations. Under Vehicle Code section 12810, most everyday moving violations, such as running a red light, rolling through a stop sign or going over the speed limit, count as one point.

A violation worth two points is outside traffic school altogether. Vehicle Code section 42005 also rules out any ticket in a commercial vehicle, hit and run, reckless driving and driving under the influence, and it rules out speeding over 100 miles per hour, which counts as two points.

Some tickets sit in between. Under Rule 4.104 of the California Rules of Court, the court clerk cannot grant traffic school for a misdemeanor, an alcohol or drug violation, or speeding more than 25 miles per hour over the limit. A judge can still allow it in a given case, so if your ticket is one of these, ask the court rather than assume the answer.

You can take traffic school again, but the confidential result comes once in any 18 months. Vehicle Code section 1808.7 protects the first traffic school conviction in an 18 month period, so a second ticket inside that window does not get a second one.

When 18 months have passed, you can use traffic school again for a new ticket. If you are not sure when your last one counted, our eligibility checker explains how to count the window.

The court decides. Vehicle Code section 42005 lets a court order or permit a driver to attend traffic school, and a school has no say in that decision. Most drivers ask for it, but a court can also order it as part of a case.

Once the court says yes, the choice of school is yours. The same section lets you choose the traffic violator school you attend, and the court gives you the DMV's current list of licensed schools. Mirai Traffic School is licensed by the California DMV under license E0756.

The school you pick sends in your completion, so choose one that asks for your court before the final exam and reports to the DMV electronically.

A traffic ticket is heard in the county where it was written. Vehicle Code section 40502 sets that rule, and California has one superior court in each of its 58 counties, so your court is the superior court of the county where you were stopped, even if you live somewhere else.

If the stop happened while you were traveling, you still deal with that county's court, but you can take an online course from wherever you live.

Your citation names the court and its address. When you finish traffic school, the school reports your completion to the DMV with that court's DMV court code, and the court retrieves it from the DMV's system. A completion sent under the wrong code does not reach your court, which is why Mirai Traffic School asks for your court and its code before your final exam.

After an officer cites you, the court mails you a reminder, often called a courtesy notice. It shows what you owe, when it is due, and your options, including whether you can take traffic school.

A new ticket can take a while to reach the court's system, so a lookup that finds nothing soon after the stop is normal. If the notice has not arrived by the date printed on your citation, do not wait for it. Contact the court named on the citation and ask what to do.

Traffic school is one path. You can also pay the ticket, or you can contest it.

Vehicle Code section 40902 lets you contest most infractions in writing, by trial by written declaration, instead of appearing in court. Driving under the influence is outside that written process. If you do not agree with the written decision, the same section lets you ask for a new trial.

If paying is hard, tell the court. Vehicle Code section 42007 lets the court set a lower traffic school fee for a driver who cannot pay it.

Traffic school is for drivers of personal vehicles. A ticket in a commercial vehicle never qualifies, under Vehicle Code section 42005.

If you hold a commercial license but were driving your own car, you may still attend. The court cannot make that conviction confidential, but the point is not added to your count. That rule is in the same section, and Vehicle Code section 1808.7 repeats that a commercial license holder does not get the confidential result.

Most traffic convictions count as one point under Vehicle Code section 12810. Reckless driving and a few other serious offenses count as two.

Points add up. Under section 12810.5, a driver with four points in 12 months, six in 24 months or eight in 36 months is presumed to be a negligent operator, which the DMV can act on. Traffic school matters most when one more point would bring you close to one of those limits.

Yes. California courts provide court interpreters free of charge. For the languages the Judicial Council designates, Government Code section 68561 requires a certified court interpreter, and Evidence Code section 752 makes the interpreter a cost of the court, not of the driver, in a criminal action.

Ask the court on your citation for an interpreter before your date. Mirai Traffic School teaches the course itself in English, Spanish, Japanese and Russian, so the class can be in your language too.

Mirai Traffic School is a California DMV-licensed traffic violator school, license E0756. The course runs online in English, Spanish, Japanese and Russian for $24.99, and you study at your own pace before a final exam.

Before the exam, Mirai Traffic School asks which court has your ticket and its DMV court code. After you pass, Mirai Traffic School reports your completion to the DMV electronically, and your court retrieves it there. The DMV's system holds completions for every California court, and each court collects the ones sent under its own code, which is why the code has to be right the first time.

Watch your court's own date. The court sets the date to finish traffic school, and your courtesy notice shows it.