Connecticut traffic tickets.
In Connecticut, paying the ticket assesses no points. Fighting it and losing can. That is the opposite of every other state.
How it works in Connecticut.
The Centralized Infractions Bureau, part of the Superior Court in Hartford, handles it. Plead not guilty and the file moves to the Superior Court Geographical Area court for the town where it happened.
The DMV runs points separately: a warning at six, and suspension when the total exceeds ten within twenty four months, thirty days for a first such suspension.
Work zones and school zones
Double the whole thing, and they stack
A dollar for every eight dollars of fine
Plus a $15 cost on speeding
A $20 or $35 surcharge
Plus a $5 assessment
A fifty percent Special Transportation Fund surcharge on speeding
Plus a $25 additional fee on a long list of moving violations
Paying the ticket assesses no points at all.
C.G.S. 14-137a says it plainly: no points shall be assessed for an infraction for which the person sends payment of the fine to the Centralized Infractions Bureau, with a minimum of one point for a handheld phone violation. The DMV point schedule effectively applies only to court convictions.
So in Connecticut, fighting a speeding ticket and losing at trial can cost you a point that simply mailing the cheque would not have. That is the opposite of how every other state in this region works.
Common violations and what they carry.
Speeding
C.G.S. 14-219(b)
$162 total at 1 to 9 mph over, rising to $226 at 22 or more over.
Failure to obey a control signal
C.G.S. 14-299
$139 total.
Travelling too fast for conditions
Moving violation
$142 total.
Following too closely
Moving violation
Three points.
Failure to yield
Moving violation
Three points.
Passing a stopped school bus
Moving violation
The highest point value on this list.
Those point values apply to a court conviction. Paying the fine by mail to the Centralized Infractions Bureau assesses no points at all, with a minimum of one point for a handheld phone violation.
What actually helps here.
The Online Ticket Review Program
You upload a narrative and documents and a prosecutor reviews the file before any court date.
The prosecutor can dismiss it outright, reduce fines or fees, offer a different charge, or send it to court.
There is no voluntary point reduction course
Connecticut has no elective course that removes points. The Operator Retraining Program is mandatory, not elective, and the DMV does not say it removes points.
Because paying by mail assesses no points in the first place, the question that matters here is usually whether to contest at all.
The answer date printed on the ticket
Set by the issuing officer. Missing it means suspension, a $60 reopening fee, DMV reinstatement fees, and the misdemeanour of failure to pay or plead, which carries up to ten days in jail.
Not verified, and it rarely matters
Whether an attorney can appear without you is not confirmed by an official source. In practice it rarely arises, because Online Ticket Review resolves most cases with nobody appearing at all.
Read this first.
How it works
You send us the ticket. That is your entire job. Four steps and a flat fee in writing.
What we fight
Speeding, red light, cell phone, reckless driving, suspended licence and CDL tickets.
Send us the ticket
Free review, no obligation, and a straight answer about whether fighting it is worth your money.
Send us the Connecticut ticket.
Free review, no obligation, and a straight answer about whether fighting it is worth your money. Representation in Connecticut is provided by an attorney licensed in Connecticut.