Your license will be suspended if you accumulate too many points from traffic tickets. In Colorado, you start off with 0 points and when convictions are reported to the DMV, you have points added to your record. Finding a Colorado traffic ticket lawyer to help understand all this in lay terms will help you gain insight. A summary of the points bracket by age follows:

                                             Minor Driver 17 & Under

	Points Requiring Suspension
Within any 12 months	12 or more
Within any 24 months	18 or more

 

Colorado law provides for different point brackets if you are a chauffeur. By statute, a chauffeur is an individual who is employed as a driver, such as a taxi cab driver. You may be entitled to chauffeur points if you can prove each ticket occurred in the course of your employment. If you wish to be considered for chauffeur points, you should be prepared to bring documentation to the hearing, such as work records and copies of your tickets.

                                               Chauffeur Points

	Points Requiring Suspension
Within any 12 months	16 or more
Within any 24 months	24 or more
Within any 48 months	28 or more

 

The dates of violation (not the dates of conviction) are used to determine whether there is an excessive number of points over a particular period of time.

To see the points on your record, Length of Suspension:

If you fall into one of the above categories, you will be suspended. As long as there are sufficient points for suspension, the Hearing Officer has no discretion about whether a point suspension will enter. However, the Hearing Officer does have discretion about the length of the suspension and whether to grant a probationary driver license. The maximum suspension that can be entered is one year. To determine the length of the suspension, the Hearing Officer starts out with a base point suspension period of 6 months, and then reviews your driving history and behaviors for aggravators and mitigators. Aggravators are negative points in your driving history, such as repeat violations for the same offense, accidents, serious traffic offenses, failing to disclose pending tickets, etc. Mitigators are positive points, such as any evidence that shows a change in prior bad driving habits.

Probationary Driver Licenses:

You may also be considered for a probationary driver license (PDL) (commonly referred to as a “red license”) at your point suspension hearing. However, you are not guaranteed to get a PDL, as it is up to the Hearing Officer’s discretion. It is much more difficult to obtain a second PDL if you have had a prior PDL, as a prior PDL is considered an aggravator.

If you are granted a probationary driver license, it will be valid only for specific reasons, such as work or school. If you are contacted by a law enforcement agency, they will be checking to make sure you are driving for a valid reason. If you are unable to verify the reason driving, the officer may take your license immediately. Probationary driver licenses are not valid outside the state of Colorado.

If you obtain a second or new job, you may request a change to your PDL by filling out this form and either faxing it to 303-205-5700 or bringing it to 1881 Pierce Street, Entrance B, Room 112. Changes to your PDL will be up to the discretion of your Hearing Officer.

Another condition of a probationary driver license is that you cannot receive any tickets for moving violations (parking tickets do not count). Any ticket will cancel your driving privileges which again could be done immediately if the officer issues you a ticket. Probationary driver licenses are zero tolerance – in other words, as long as the officer writes you a ticket, it will cancel your driving privileges, even if you intend to go to court to fight the ticket. A law enforcement officer must have probable cause to cite you for a traffic offense. If your probationary driver license is cancelled, you will be required to carry SR-22 insurance for 3 years once you get reinstated.

Once the point suspension is up, you will need to get reinstated, even if you were granted a PDL. Once your probationary driver license expires, you cannot drive until you reinstate. For more information regarding reinstatement, click here.