6.3 The Maryland Point System, Sanctions, and Hearings

How Points Attach

Points are assessed against a Maryland driving record on conviction of a moving violation, on forfeiture of collateral, or on payment of a traffic citation without contest. Paying a citation by mail or online is a guilty disposition, and instructors should say so plainly in Unit 9 — students and parents routinely assume a mailed payment avoids points.

Points expire two years from the date of the violation. The clock runs from the violation date, not the conviction date, so a case that takes months to resolve consumes part of its own point life.

---

The Statutory Point Schedule (Transportation Article, §16-402)

The five values most often misstated

Prep material circulating on the internet routinely gets these wrong. Learn the correct figures:

1. Reckless driving = 6 points, not 5. Aggressive driving is the 5-point offense.
2. Speeding 30+ over = 6 points, not 3. It sits alongside reckless driving.
3. Failing to stop for a school bus = 3 points, not 8.
4. Driving on a learner's permit unaccompanied = 5 points. This is the one a driving instructor is most likely to encounter professionally — it is why COMAR 11.23.02.34D makes permit verification a personal duty before every in-car lesson.
5. DWI (impaired) = 8 points; DUI (under the influence) = 12 points. The 12-point offense triggers revocation on its own.

The accident multiplier

Note the structural rule buried in the 1-point and 3-point rows. A moving violation that would otherwise be a 1-point offense becomes a 3-point offense if it contributes to an accident. The same conduct, different consequence, based on outcome.

---

The Four MVA Action Thresholds

 3 points  ->  MVA sends a WARNING LETTER
 5 points  ->  DRIVER IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM required
 8 points  ->  LICENSE SUSPENSION
12 points  ->  LICENSE REVOCATION

Only active points count — those from violations within the preceding two years. A driver at 7 points whose oldest 3-point violation ages out drops to 4 and falls below the suspension threshold without any action on their part.

Driver Improvement Program

At 5 points the MVA requires completion of an approved Driver Improvement Program (DIP). The DIP is also the mandatory first-offense sanction for a provisional license holder convicted of any moving violation, independent of the point total, and it reappears in the provisional sanction ladder as a "young driver improvement program" at the third offense.

A separate, stricter rule for provisional drivers

A provisional license holder faces an additional trigger that a fully licensed driver does not: the first time a provisional driver accumulates 5 or more points in a 12-month period, the provisional license is suspended for 6 months; for all subsequent times, 12 months. That is a rolling 12-month window, not the two-year point life.

---

Administrative Action Is Not the Criminal Case

Instructors should teach this distinction explicitly, because it governs how students should think about a citation.

The two tracks run in parallel and neither controls the other. A driver can prevail on one and lose on the other. Probation before judgment is the clearest example: a PBJ generally avoids a conviction in court, but under Maryland's Graduated Licensing System a PBJ still restarts the 18-month provisional holding period, and a PBJ for a moving violation still resets a learner's permit holding period to 9 months from the date it was granted.

Hearings

A driver who receives an MVA notice of suspension or revocation has a right to request an administrative hearing. Hearings on Maryland driver licensing sanctions are conducted by Administrative Law Judges of the Office of Administrative Hearings, not by MVA employees, under the Administrative Procedure Act. The deadline and the effect of a request on the sanction depend on the type of action — the implied-consent Order of Suspension, for example, carries its own 10-day and 30-day deadlines covered in the next section. Instructors should tell students to read the deadline printed on the notice itself rather than rely on a general rule.

---

What Instructors Do With This

Three teaching points carry the most weight in Unit 9 and in parent conversations:

1. Paying the ticket is pleading guilty. Points attach on payment without contest exactly as they do after a trial.
2. The point total is a rolling two-year figure. Students who understand that points age out also understand that a second violation while the first is still active is what actually causes a suspension.
3. For a novice, the point system is the less dangerous of the two systems. The provisional sanction ladder — DIP, then a 30-day suspension, then a 180-day suspension, then revocation — and the 18-month reset bite long before most drivers approach 8 points.

Worked scenario

Case. A fully licensed 22-year-old is convicted of reckless driving and, three months later, of following too closely. What is the MVA's response?

Analysis. Reckless driving is 6 points under §16-402; following too closely is 2 points. The active total is 8, which reaches the suspension threshold. Had the driver instead been convicted of aggressive driving (5 points) plus following too closely (2), the total would be 7 — above the 5-point DIP threshold but below suspension. The difference turns entirely on knowing that reckless driving is a 6-point offense.