How to Read a Driving Record

One of the more interesting things that I do on a daily basis is reviewing and interpreting driving records. The main reasons I do this is to resolve insurance issues, determine suspensions and failures to appear. When a suspension is caused by a failure to appear then the record becomes more difficult to read. For instance, a failure to appear that is disposed of after 60 days from the date of notice shows four different dates.

Those are

1. the offense date,
2. the missed court date,
3. the failure to appear starting revocation date and
4. the date of compliance (or conviction).

When dealing with a suspension these dates are crucial since a conviction of a moving violation that occurs (offense date) between the failure to appear start date and the disposal date (dates 3 and 4) causes a one year suspension.

These dates are also important for insurance purposes because the insurance companies look at all convictions that occur within a 3 year period to determine insurance rates upon renewal. As such, a five year old case that is disposed of within three years of renewal could cause an insurance increase.

If you have a failure to appear or have a case that occurred during a failure to appear period it is essential to have an attorney review your record to determine the best course of action.