State laws differ so some states may require that the citation explain the amount of points you will receive on your license for pleading guilty for a certain offense while in other states it is up to the driver to either ask the law enforcement officer, contact the court or Department of Motor Vehicles to determine the amount of points that will be assessed for the offense they plead guilty to and are being convicted of.

Some states notify drivers once they are reaching the maximum amount of points one can have before their license will become suspended while others will not.

In New York State their DMV computer system automatically calculates a driver’s point total. In NYS, as in most all states, one must be convicted of the traffic violation for the points to be added to your point total. The New York DMV system notifies you and suspends your driver license if your point total reaches 11 points or more.

In Ohio a driver that accumulates six points will normally receive a letter from the Registrar of Motor Vehicles indicating the following penalties will be assessed to them should 12 or more points be accumulated within a two-year period.

In Pennsylvania when any driving record reaches 6 or more points for the first time, the driver will receive a written notice to take a special written point examination. The examination will address:

1. Knowledge of Safe Driving Practices,
2. Knowledge of Departmental Sanctions, and
3. Knowledge of Related Safety Issues.

The driver has 30 days to successfully pass the exam or else the license will be suspended until the exam is passed. If the exam is passed within the 30 day period, 2 points will be removed from the driving record.

You can contact your state’s DMV to find out if your son should have been notified at the time of conviction or in a letter before he accumulated the amount of points the state suspends your license for. Likely if he wanted to keep track of his points total he would have had to ask the court when he plead guilty or contacted the DMV to find out his points total. Usually it is not the DMV’s or courts responsibility to notify a driver of their points total.

If your son knew that your state had a points system it would usually fall on him as a driver to keep count of the points he was accumulating. If he was unsure of the points being assessed he could have asked the courts associated with his various speeding citations or contacted DMV and found out his total. He may now want to find out if there was a way to reduce his points total and get his license reinstated such as taking a driver improvement class.