DIP Class Won’t Keep Tickets Off Driving Record

Taking the Driver Improvement Program will remove speeding ticket points, but it won’t prevent the ticket from being reported on your driving record and possibly causing your car insurance rates to increase.

Should You Take the DIP Class to Remove Points From Your Driving Record?

The question of whether a driver should take the DIP class came up this week when someone called my office to ask if I could help him. He had received a 3-point ticket from a Missouri state trooper about 18 months ago. He paid the fine, took the DIP class, and the 3 points were removed from his driving record.

Your Insurance Rates May Increase Even if You Take the DIP Class

About 6 months later, his car insurance rates skyrocketed because of the speeding ticket, even though he took the DIP class. I explained to him that if he had hired a traffic law attorney to get his ticket reduced to “Illegal Parking” or “No-Point Speeding,” no points would have been added to his driving record, and the insurance company would never have known about his ticket.

How to Keep Speeding Tickets From Affecting Your Car Insurance Rates

To keep a speeding ticket from being reported on your driving record and affecting your car insurance rates, you must get your ticket reduced to a non-moving, no-point violation.

An experienced traffic law attorney can get your ticket reduced to “Illegal Parking,” which is a non-moving, no-point violation that won’t affect your driving record or insurance rates.

A “No-Point Speeding” Conviction Will Not Affect Your Driving Record

In some courts in Missouri, it’s not possible to get a speeding ticket reduced to “Illegal Parking.” In those courts, the only option offered by the court is to reduce the ticket to “No-Point Speeding,” or “Speeding 1-4 miles over,” which are no-point speeding violations.

Your ticket will be reported to the Missouri Department of Revenue, but it will not be reported on your driving record, so your insurance company will never know you received the ticket.

In contrast, if you take the DIP class instead of hiring a traffic law attorney to represent you, the points will be removed, but the speeding ticket will show up on your driving record, and your insurance company will see it the next time they review your driving record. (Most insurance companies review your driving record when your insurance policy is up for renewal, or when you buy a new car.)

How Much Will Your Insurance Rates Increase After Getting a Speeding Ticket?

To find out how much your car insurance rates may increase as the result of a speeding ticket, call your insurance agent, or click on this link to read my recent blog post about which traffic tickets cause the biggest increase in insurance rates.

To prevent speeding ticket points from being added to your Missouri driving record, call St. Louis traffic law attorney Andrea Storey Rogers at (314) 724-5059 for a price quote for legal representation and an estimate of your fine and court costs. Or email Andrea at [email protected]