How to Get a Speeding Ticket Off Your Record
If you recently received a speeding ticket, you may be wondering what you can do to keep it off your record and stop it from raising your car insurance.
The part most drivers get wrong is the timing. A speeding ticket does not land on your Texas driving record when you get pulled over. It lands when you are convicted, and paying the fine counts as a guilty plea. Once that conviction is entered there is no procedure in Texas to take it back off, so everything below has to be requested from the court before your answer date.
Learn how to get a speeding ticket off your record
You have 2 legitimate options in Texas, and both end with the charge dismissed instead of convicted. A dismissed citation never reaches the driving record your insurance carrier pulls, which is where the real cost of a ticket shows up. For how long a conviction affects that record, see how long a speeding ticket stays on your record.
Request a driving safety course dismissal
This is the option most Houston drivers qualify for. You plead guilty or no contest, take a 6-hour driving safety course, and the court dismisses the charge. The rules sit in Subchapter H of Chapter 45A of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.
You qualify if you hold a valid Texas license or permit, you have not taken a court-ordered course in the 12 months before the offense, you request it by the answer date on your notice to appear, and you can show proof of current auto liability coverage.
You do not qualify if you were charged at 95 mph or more, at 25 mph or more over the posted limit, in a construction zone with workers present, with passing a school bus, or if you held a commercial driver’s license when the citation was issued.
Only a course from a provider licensed by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation counts for a court dismissal. Check the provider’s TDLR license number before you pay. No business rating service or trade group can approve a course for a Texas court.
Houston Municipal Courts will not take the request online. You file by mail to P.O. Box 4996, Houston, TX 77210-4996, by email to mcd@houstontx.gov, or in person at any of the 6 court locations, on or before your arraignment date. Send the signed DSC application, a copy of the front of your Texas license, proof of insurance listing you as an insured driver, and payment. Confirm the current amount due on the city’s driver safety course page first, because court fees change.
Once the court grants it you have 90 days to finish the course and return your completion certificate along with a copy of your driving record. Order that record early. Waiting on it is the most common reason a driver misses the 90-day window after doing everything else right.
Ask the court about deferred disposition
If the driving safety course is closed to you, deferred disposition is the next option to raise. The judge can defer proceedings for up to 180 days without entering a finding of guilt. You pay the court, you stay out of trouble during the deferral period, and the case is dismissed at the end of it. Nothing reaches your driving record.
It is discretionary, so the judge does not have to grant it, and another moving violation during the deferral period can put the original conviction back in play.
What a dismissal saves you on car insurance
Texas used to charge annual surcharges through the Driver Responsibility Program. That program was repealed by House Bill 2048 effective September 1, 2019, and no new surcharges have been assessed since. What still costs you is the conviction itself, because carriers look back 3 to 5 years on driving history when they set a premium.
If a conviction is already on your record, shopping the policy does more for you than trying to undo the record. Carriers weigh violations differently from each other, and the gap between the strictest and the most forgiving carrier on the same record is often wider than the surcharge itself. See why your car insurance is so high for the other factors involved.
We write car insurance in Houston and across Texas, including for drivers with violations on their record. Contact us if you want to know what your record is costing you.
This page is general information about Texas court procedure, not legal advice. Requirements and fees vary by court and change over time. Confirm the specifics with the court listed on your citation, or speak with a traffic attorney about your case.
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Janeth López can insure a Texas driver even without a U.S. driver’s license, the kind of policy many families assume isn’t available to them. As an agent at Houston-based Paga Menos Insurance, she covers the whole state across personal and commercial lines, from home, auto, and life coverage to business policies for taquerías, drywall crews, and truckers. She handles all of it in Spanish and builds payment plans around what a client can actually afford.