By Gerald Reed
I have come across a number of clients that were not aware when you go to traffic school for a second time within 18 months, the insurance company will still charge for those violations. Client’s are not happy to learn the court is not disclosing this. They end up paying the traffic school fee and violation, and their ticket is still charged for by the insurance carrier making their insurance rate go up. I found the following information which may be helpful to understand before you make the same mistake:
The California Department of Motor Vehicles keeps a public record of all your traffic convictions and accidents. Each occurrence stays on your record for 36 months or longer, depending on the type of conviction. The points typically stay with the offense on the record for the 3 years unless you take traffic school to remove them.
You may be considered a negligent operator when your driving record shows any one of the following point count” totals regardless of your license class:
● 4 points in 12 months
● 6 points in 24 months
● 8 points in 36 months
California normally allows for a driver to attend a traffic school once every eighteen months to keep the offense and points from being placed on their driving record. As you know from attending traffic school earlier in the year if you attend traffic school, you pay the regular court fine plus a traffic school fee. When it is your first time for traffic school within the 18 month period you have to attend an eight-hour course. Some courts will accept a traffic school offered on the Internet. There is indeed what some have termed a second offender traffic school available in California if you have already attended traffic school for the first time in the 18 month period. Some judges will let you attend this 2nd offender traffic school which is a 12 hour course compared to the first offender traffic school which was only 8 hours. When the CA court allows you to attend the second offender traffic school the DMV will not access a point against your license. However, insurance companies will know you attended the second offender traffic school and that you must have attended an eight-hour traffic school.
With a first offender traffic school, your ticket is dismissed and neither the offense nor points are added to your driving record or a mention of traffic school. Thus with your first traffic school your insurance company does not find out about your ticket. When a driver attends a 12-hour second offender traffic school no points are assessed however the fact that you have gone to a 12-hour traffic school for this ticket will become part of their public DMV record and thus your insurance company could become aware of it. It is our understanding that the second offender traffic school shows upon your record as “traffic school” and since insurance companies are aware that the first offender traffic school does not get placed on your record then they know this notation would mean you have taken traffic school twice in 18 months.
Posted By Ron Siegel
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Ron Siegel is a Radio Show host on the Real Estate Radio Network and counsels clients in all matters Real Estate Related – Mortgage Banking, Real Estate Purchases and Sales, Short Sales, Foreclosures, Credit Repair. Reach on Ron Siegel at Ron@MBEhoa.com – 800.306.1990 – www.MBEhoa.com.
