To find out if you are eligible to take traffic school or a defensive driving course to keep the points assigned to this speeding ticket off of your license check with the court listed on your ticket.

Normally the clerk of the court can tell you if traffic school is available for your offense or if there is a way to reduce the violation. It may be that you were speeding too much over the posted limit in order to be allowed to take a defensive driving course (DDC).

The information we found for certain county traffic courts within North Carolina stated that to take the course your speeding citation could be 20 mph or less over limit in 35 zone or 15 mph or less over limit in all zones over 40. So you may not be able to take the DDC for a ticket for 17 mph over the limit. To find out for certain what the jurisdiction you are in allows, or if there are state wide rules for DDC, check with the clerk of the court.

In North Carolina, a speeding ticket for speeding in excess of 55 mph is 3 points. Depending on the county in which you received your ticket it might be possible to take a defensive driving course, as discussed above, or request a Prayer for Judgment Continued (PJC).

A Prayer for Judgment Continued is a finding of guilt without entry of a judgment and appears to be unique to the state of North Carolina. A PJC is usually obtained after a plea of guilty in court but sometimes a judge can enter a PJC after a not guilty plea.

For Automobile Insurance purposes, one can have up to one PJC per household every 3 years that will not allow insurance premiums to be raised. For Driver's License purposes, a driver can have up to two PJCs within a 5 year period which will not result in driver's license points.

In some counties it might be a combination of both a driving course and PJC that allows you to keep points from being placed on your NC license. For example in Mecklenburg County, NC you may elect to receive a PJC by completing a 4 hour defensive driving course.

The NC DOT might also have information available on the courses or plea of PJC if you need more information then what the court can give you. Our article What a Ticket Can Truly Cost You can help explain the insurance ramifications of a ticket conviction on your driving record.