Speeding Ticket in California: Fines, Points & Traffic School (2026)

Three Speed Laws, Not One: Which One Is on Your Ticket?

California does not have one speeding law. It has three layers, and the layer on your ticket decides your defence, your points, and your fine band. Most thin competitor pages blur them into one table. Do not let them: the first thing to do with any speeding ticket is to find the Vehicle Code section printed on it.

VC 22348 and VC 22349 are absolute limits. VC 22349 says no person may drive faster than 65 mph on a highway, and no faster than 55 mph on a two-lane, undivided highway (a road with no more than one through lane in each direction; a passing lane does not change that). VC 22348(a) says you shall not drive faster than a speed limit established under VC 22349 or VC 22356 — including a posted 70 mph freeway segment, where the posted limit governs. Over the posted maximum is a violation, full stop. There is no “but conditions were safe” defence to an absolute-limit ticket, because the statute does not ask about conditions.

VC 22352 sets prima facie limits — presumed limits you can rebut. The current limits are 15 mph (blind railway grade crossings, blind intersections, and alleys, each as defined in the statute) and 25 mph (business and residence districts, school zones while children are going to or leaving school during school hours or noon recess, and posted senior centres). VC 22351 explains the deal: driving at or below a prima facie limit is lawful unless it is clearly proved to violate the basic speed law, and driving over a prima facie limit is prima facie unlawful — presumed unlawful — unless you establish by competent evidence that your speed did not violate the basic speed law under the conditions then existing. That is a real defence, and it is the whole basis for contesting a prima facie ticket. It is not a defence to an absolute-limit ticket, and confusing the two is the most common self-inflicted error in speeding cases.

VC 22350, the basic speed law, has no number in it at all. Its text: no person shall drive at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent having due regard for weather, visibility, traffic, and the surface and width of the highway, and in no event at a speed which endangers the safety of persons or property. You can violate it while driving under the posted limit — 55 mph in dense fog, heavy rain, or stop-and-go traffic where that speed is not reasonable or prudent. It is also the statute behind “too fast for conditions” tickets, and the yardstick that makes prima facie limits rebuttable. In the ordinary case it is an infraction, not a misdemeanour.

One more section deserves a warning of its own. VC 22348(c) is not a penalty tier. It exists, but it is a lane-use rule for vehicles subject to VC 22406 (trucks, buses, and towing combinations): use a designated lane, or the right-hand lane, with passing exceptions. Any page that implies “22348(c)” is a fine, point, or suspension tier is wrong, and this page does not cite it for any penalty.

How Your Fine Is Actually Built (the Mechanism, Not a Price List)

Start with what the law caps, then what the schedule sets, then what the assessments add — because those three steps are where every fake single total on the internet goes wrong.

Step 1: the statutory ceilings. VC 42001 caps an ordinary infraction fine at not more than $100 for a first infraction, $200 for a second infraction within one year of a prior infraction conviction, and $250 for a third or subsequent infraction within one year of two or more prior infraction convictions. Read that carefully: these are ceilings on the fine, not the amount anyone pays. VC 22348(b) over-100-mph cases have their own higher ceilings ($500/$750/$1,000) that override these caps for that offence.

Step 2: the Judicial Council Uniform Bail and Penalty Schedule base fine. The schedule — the document courts use to set bail for each violation — groups speeding into bands by how far over the limit you were. The widely reported base fines are $35 for 1–15 mph over, $70 for 16–25 mph over, and $100 for 26 mph or more over. The over-100-mph band is reported with a $200 schedule base fine, but do not confuse that schedule base with the $500 statute ceiling: the ceiling is the legal maximum fine, the base is the schedule’s starting number before assessments. These base fines are the starting number only. They are not what you pay.

Step 3: the assessments, surcharges, and flat fees. This is why a $35 base fine becomes several hundred dollars. Calculated per $10 (or part of $10) of base fine, the stack confirmed in Judicial Council revenue-distribution materials and court-published assessment sheets is: Penal Code 1464 state penalty, $10 per $10; Government Code 76000 county penalty, $7 per $10, levied by county board-of-supervisors resolution — this is the main reason totals vary by county, because a county that does not levy the maximum produces a lower total; Government Code 70372 state court facilities construction penalty, $5 per $10; DNA identification fund penalties totalling $5 per $10 combined (county and state funds); Government Code 76000.5 EMS penalty, $2 per $10; Penal Code 1465.7 state surcharge, 20% of the base fine; plus flat fees that do not scale with the base fine — the $40 court operations assessment (Penal Code 1465.8) and the $35 criminal conviction assessment (Government Code 70373).

Worked illustration of the mechanism — not a quoted total: a $100 base fine generates roughly $290 in per-$10 assessments alone (state $100 + county $70 + court facilities $50 + DNA $50 + EMS $20), plus the 20% surcharge ($20) and the flat fees ($75), before any county variation. That is why secondary sources say totals run roughly three to five times the base fine. This page shows the arithmetic so you understand the stack, and stops there: the summed illustration is not “the fine in California,” because your county’s resolution and your court’s schedule decide the real number.

Construction zones are the one verified enhancement. VC 42009 provides that for an offence in a highway construction or maintenance area — while traffic is regulated or restricted, or while construction or maintenance is actually being performed by workers in their official capacity — an infraction fine is one category higher than the penalty otherwise prescribed by the uniform traffic penalty schedule. A 1–15-mph-over ticket in an active work zone is therefore priced at the 16–25 tier, and so on. Conditions matter: workers actually present or traffic actually regulated — not merely “a construction zone exists.” School zones do not have a verified equivalent. No “fines double in school zones” statute was found in this research, and this page does not claim one. A school-zone ticket is enforced strictly and cited under VC 22352, but any enhancement on your individual citation or courtesy notice is what controls.

If you cannot afford the fine, ask the court — do not ignore the ticket. California courts offer fine reductions, payment plans, and community service for drivers who cannot afford a ticket, and VC 42007 itself allows a court to set a lesser traffic-school fee on a showing of inability to pay. No statewide reduction formula was verified for this page, so the honest advice is to ask your own court about ability-to-pay options before the deadline. Ignoring the ticket is the one option that reliably makes everything worse.

Points, NOTS, and the Cost That Outlasts the Fine

The fine is the smaller cost. The point is the cost that follows you for years — into the DMV’s negligent-operator system and into your insurer’s pricing. Get the point rules right and most speeding decisions get easier.

VC 12810 sets the point values in one sentence each. VC 12810(f): except as otherwise provided, any other traffic conviction involving the safe operation of a motor vehicle on the highway is worth one point. Ordinary speeding — VC 22348(a), 22349, 22350, 22352 — is therefore one point. VC 12810(d)(1): a VC 22348(b) over-100-mph conviction is worth two points. VC 12810(g): a traffic accident in which you are deemed responsible is worth one point, which matters if speeding contributed to a crash even without a ticket. And VC 12810.5(b)(2): each point is valued at 1.5 times for violations reasonably determined to be attributable to operating a vehicle requiring a Class A or B licence — so a commercial-vehicle one-point speeding conviction counts as 1.5 points for negligent-operator purposes.

VC 12810.5 sets the negligent-operator presumption. A driver whose record shows 4 or more points in 12 months, 6 or more in 24 months, or 8 or more in 36 months is prima facie presumed to be a negligent operator. “Prima facie” means the presumption stands unless rebutted — and at a hearing the DMV must give due consideration to how much you drive. The practical arithmetic: four ordinary one-point speeding tickets in 12 months reach the presumption; two over-100-mph tickets in 12 months (2 + 2) reach it as well. One ordinary speeding ticket alone never triggers it — a fact that calms most readers and corrects alarmist competitor copy. For Class A and B drivers, the hearing thresholds are higher (6 in 12, 8 in 24, 10 in 36), unless the DMV reasonably determines the points are attributable to driving a vehicle requiring only a Class C (or M) licence, in which case the ordinary thresholds apply.

The DMV’s Negligent Operator Treatment System (NOTS) acts before the presumption, in levels. The DMV’s own page confirms the ladder — and note that the warning and notice thresholds sit below the statutory presumption, so you can hear from the DMV well before you are a “negligent operator” in law. NOTS action is a separate DMV administrative process from the court case: winning or losing in court and the DMV’s point action are different tracks, and you must deal with both.

How long does the point count? The DMV Driver Handbook formulation is that traffic convictions stay on the record for “36 months or longer, depending on the type of conviction.” Safe wording for this guide: an ordinary speeding point counts against you for about three years from the violation date. Third-party sites quote 39 months for one-point violations and 7–10 years for major violations, but those figures are not confirmed against a primary DMV source, and this page does not print them as DMV rules. Insurance lookback is a separate question from DMV point counting — insurers use their own windows, and no premium-increase percentage or dollar figure is printed anywhere on this page, because no statewide figure exists. The honest line is the useful one: a visible (unmasked) moving-violation conviction can be used by insurers in pricing and can cost more over time than the fine itself; a traffic-school-masked conviction is held confidential and is not reported to insurers. The effect depends on your insurer, your record, the violation, and your location — ask your insurer.

For the complete point table covering every violation type, and the full NOTS hearing detail, see our California point system guide. This page covers points only as they apply to speeding.

Over 100 mph: VC 22348(b), the Highest-Stakes Section on This Page

Driving over 100 mph on a highway is charged under VC 22348(b), and it is a different offence from ordinary speeding in every respect that matters: fine, points, traffic school, and licence consequences. The statute’s text, verified on leginfo, is worth quoting in plain form because so many attorney pages paraphrase it wrong.

VC 22348(b): a person who drives a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than 100 miles per hour is guilty of an infraction punishable as follows. First conviction: a fine of not more than $500, and the court may also suspend the privilege to operate a motor vehicle for not more than 30 days under VC 13200.5. Note the word “may”: suspension on a first offence is discretionary, not automatic — competitor pages that say “automatic 30-day suspension on a first 100+ ticket” are wrong. Second conviction, for an offence occurring within three years of a prior 22348(b) conviction: a fine of not more than $750, and the privilege shall be suspended by the DMV under VC 13355(a). Third conviction, for an offence occurring within five years of two or more prior 22348(b) convictions: a fine of not more than $1,000, and the privilege shall be suspended by the DMV under VC 13355(b). These are fine ceilings before assessments — the amount actually owed will be higher once assessments are added, and will vary by county.

Two points on a single conviction is half the 12-month negligent-operator threshold — and traffic school is not available for a two-point violation at all: VC 42005(c)(3) bars confidentiality and point-avoidance for offences described in VC 12810(d) or (e), and California Rules of Court rule 4.104 independently bars traffic school for any violation carrying more than one point (and for speeding more than 25 mph over the limit). A 100+ mph ticket fails both tests. There is no way to mask it. Note the restriction alternative on repeats: it is not “lose your licence entirely” in every repeat case — the employment-restriction option exists under VC 13355, though whether a restricted licence is granted in a given case is a DMV and court process question this page does not promise. Whether a court appearance is required for a 100+ mph ticket is also something attorney pages assert without a primary source: check your citation and courtesy notice for whether an appearance is required, and do not assume it can be handled by mail alone.

Traffic School: What It Does, Who Gets It, and the Traps

Traffic violator school (TVS) is the most misunderstood part of a speeding ticket, because provider pages sell it as near-automatic and attorney pages sell it as a dismissal. It is neither. It is a court permission with strict eligibility rules, and its benefit is specific: confidentiality plus no point — not a refund, not a dismissal.

What it actually does. When a court permits TVS and you complete it, the court may order the conviction held confidential by the DMV under VC 1808.7. Effect, confirmed by multiple county courts: no violation point is assessed, the conviction is not shown on the public driving record, and insurers cannot see it — which is why it protects premiums. It does not erase the conviction: courts can still see it (that is how the 18-month rule is enforced), and the DMV retains it confidentially. Traffic school does not “dismiss” the ticket, “remove” the conviction, or reduce the fine. You still pay.

Who can get it — VC 42005 and Rule 4.104. VC 42005(a): after deposit of the VC 42007 fee or bail, a guilty or no-contest plea, or a conviction, a court may order or permit a person holding a noncommercial Class C, M1, or M2 licence to attend a DMV-licensed traffic violator school. Note “may” — traffic school is court permission, not a right, and in some counties the clerk can grant it while in others only the judge can (a real driver question on Justia’s Q&A threads: a VC 22349 driver told by the clerk to ask the judge). VC 42005(d): you choose your school; the court must provide the DMV’s current list of licensed schools. VC 42005(e): failing to comply with a TVS order draws no additional penalties for the failure itself, but confidentiality then does not apply — the point stands. VC 41501(a): the court shall notify you that only one conviction within 18 months will be held confidential.

The bars — VC 42005(c). The court shall not order confidentiality or point-avoidance, or permit TVS in lieu of adjudication, if any of these applies: the offence occurred in a commercial motor vehicle; the offence is VC 20001, 20002, 23103, 23104, 23105, 23140, 23152, 23153, or VC 23103 as specified in VC 23103.5; or the offence is described in VC 12810(d) or (e) — any two-point offence, which includes VC 22348(b) over-100-mph. The Rule 4.104 clerk criteria, as published by San Francisco, Butte, and other superior courts, add the practical checklist: a valid licence currently held; an eligible infraction (not a misdemeanour); no TVS attendance for a violation committed within the last 18 months — measured violation date to violation date, not attendance date to attendance date, the detail most drivers get wrong; if cited for speeding, the alleged speed must not be more than 25 mph over the limit (so 26+ over is ineligible even though it is a one-point offence — the second most important eligibility trap after the two-point bar); no outstanding unadjudicated failure to appear or civil assessment; not a VC 22406.5 tank-vehicle violation; not alcohol- or drug-related; not a commercial-vehicle violation.

From Citation to Resolution: Your Four Options, in Order

Signing the ticket is a promise to appear, not an admission of guilt. The ticket shows the court and the date by which you must act. The court then mails a courtesy notice with the total bail, the due date, and your options. If that notice never arrives, you are still responsible for responding by the date on the ticket — the single most common and costly misunderstanding in California traffic cases. If no notice arrives, contact the court in the county where you were cited.

Option 1 — Pay (plead guilty or no contest, forfeit bail). Fastest, and final: the conviction stands, the point is assessed (unless traffic school was elected and completed), and the conviction is visible to insurers. Check traffic-school eligibility first, because paying first can close that door.

Option 2 — Traffic school (if eligible). Pay the VC 42007 fee (the total bail), complete a DMV-licensed course by the court deadline, and the conviction is held confidential with no point. See the full checklist above.

Option 3 — Contest by trial by written declaration (TBWD). VC 40902 authorises a defendant charged with an infraction to have a trial by written declaration; it does not cover misdemeanours, and a ticket requiring a mandatory court appearance is not TBWD-eligible. Under Rule 4.210: if the clerk receives your written TBWD request by the appearance date on the notice to appear, the clerk must, within 15 calendar days of receiving it, extend the appearance date by 25 calendar days and send form TR-205 (Request for Trial by Written Declaration) and TR-200 (Instructions to Defendant). You must file form TR-205 by the appearance date or the extended due date, and deposit bail by the same date — the general rule is bail deposited up front (an ability-to-pay exception is court-specific and is not presented here as a general rule). After the officer’s declaration (or the close of the officer’s return date if none is filed), the file goes to the court for decision.

Option 4 — Contest at a court trial, or a new trial after TBWD. Plead not guilty and appear; the officer testifies. If the officer does not appear, dismissal is the typical outcome — but it is not guaranteed by any statute cited here, so this page says “often dismissed,” not “automatically dismissed.” If you are found guilty after TBWD, VC 40902(d) and Rule 4.210 give you a completely fresh trial (trial de novo) on filing form TR-220 within 20 calendar days after delivery or mailing of the decision (form TR-215); the clerk must set the new trial within 45 calendar days of receiving the request. The 20-day clock runs from the mailing date on the clerk’s certificate, not the date you open the envelope — stress that to yourself before you file. No verified TBWD “success rates” or officer no-show statistics exist, and none are printed here.

If you miss the date: act the same day you realise. Missing the appear-by date can lead to additional court action, a civil assessment, a hold on your driving privilege, and loss of options — including traffic-school eligibility until the failure to appear is adjudicated and any assessment paid. This page deliberately prints no single civil-assessment figure: secondary pages repeat “$300” as a statewide fact while Sacramento County’s own material cites “up to $100” for that county, which itself proves the figure is not uniform. The dedicated failure-to-appear guide owns this topic; this page keeps it to this warning paragraph.

Speeding is not a fix-it ticket. A speeding conviction cannot be “fixed” by correcting something after the fact. Correctable procedure — sign-off, proof of correction, dismissal — applies to equipment and registration-type violations, not to moving violations like speeding. You cannot “fix” a speeding ticket by driving slower afterward, and no proof-of-correction filing dismisses one. See our fix-it ticket guide for the violations that actually are correctable, and do not send it a speeding citation.

Special Drivers: Commercial, Out-of-State, and Speed Cameras

Commercial drivers get far less from traffic school — and nothing at all in a commercial vehicle. Ticketed in a commercial vehicle, traffic school is not available at all (VC 42005(c)(1)), the point counts at 1.5 times for NOTS purposes, and the conviction is reportable for federal purposes. Ticketed in your personal (Class C) vehicle while holding a commercial licence, the court may permit TVS, the point is not added to your negligent-operator count, but the conviction is not kept confidential — insurers and employers can still see it. Commercial drivers should not be told otherwise, and a restricted licence after a NOTS suspension is not available to CDL holders in the same way; ask the DMV, because CDL restrictions differ.

Out-of-state drivers: the ticket follows you home, in your home state’s terms. A California speeding conviction is reported to your home state through interstate record-sharing, and your home state then applies its own point and insurance consequences, which may differ from California’s. Out-of-state drivers can use California TVS if they meet the same eligibility rules, and an online course can be completed from anywhere — but the California court’s permission and deadline still govern. Check both the California court’s instructions and your home state’s rules before assuming the ticket “doesn’t count back home.” No compact membership or specific home-state point transfer is stated here, because none was verified.

Minors and rental cars: two honest one-liners, nothing more. Drivers under 18 may be handled through juvenile procedures — the citation’s court instructions control, and no distinct minor point rules are stated here. The citation names the driver, not the car — if you were driving a rental, the ticket is still yours; check your rental agreement for any company processing fee, stated here only conditionally because no rental-company fee or notice procedure was verified.

Four Worked Examples (Mechanism Only — No Invented Totals)

Each example ends where it must: your courtesy notice states your exact total, and your county’s schedule decides it. No dollar total is attached to any example below.

Example A — 85 in a 65 (20 mph over, freeway). Charge: VC 22348(a) / 22349(a) — absolute limit, 20 over, so the 16–25 band with a $70 base fine. The stack: $70 base, per-$10 assessments (state $70 + county $49 + court facilities $35 + DNA $35 + EMS $14), plus the 20% surcharge ($14) and the flat fees ($40 + $35) — a total several times the base, county-dependent. Points: 1 point. Traffic school: eligible in principle (one-point infraction, 20 over within the 25-over bar, if no TVS in the last 18 months and the other Rule 4.104 criteria are met) — court permission required. If masked: no point, conviction confidential from insurers.

Example B — 105 in a 65 (40 over, over 100 mph). Charge: VC 22348(b) — not the ordinary speeding bands at all. First conviction: fine ceiling $500 before assessments, court may suspend up to 30 days. Points: 2 points — halfway to the 12-month negligent-operator threshold in one conviction. Traffic school: not available (two-point bar and 25-over bar, both failed). Repeat exposure: second within 3 years, up to $750 plus mandatory 6-month suspension or restriction; third within 5 years of two priors, up to $1,000 plus 1-year suspension or restriction. Reckless overlay: only if willful or wanton disregard is also proved (VC 23103) — speed alone does not make it reckless.

Example C — 45 in a 25 school zone (20 over, prima facie). Charge: VC 22352(b)(2) prima facie limit — 25 mph past a posted school while children are going to or leaving school. Prima facie unlawful, so you may contest by competent evidence that 45 mph was reasonable and prudent under the actual conditions (VC 22351(b)). Contrast with Example A, where no such defence exists. Band: 20 over, same 16–25 band, $70 base, same assessment stack, county-dependent total. Points: 1 point. Traffic school: eligible in principle (20 over within the bar). No school-zone fine multiplier is claimed — none was verified.

Example D — 32 in a 25 residential street (7 over, prima facie). Same prima facie framework as Example C, band 1–15 over, $35 base. Useful because many drivers assume “only 7 over” cannot be ticketed — it can, and the prima facie defence (prove the speed was safe and reasonable on that street at that time) is the realistic contest route.

Common Mistakes, From Real Questions

• Paying online first, then asking about traffic school. Paying can be treated as a conviction without the school election. Contact the clerk first if you want school.
• Comparing tickets by their base fines. A $35 base and a $100 base do not differ by $65 at the payment window — the assessments multiply the gap and the flat charges narrow it, and the county matters as much as the violation.
• Assuming the ticket shows the total. It usually does not. The courtesy notice does. And if the notice never arrives, the ticket’s deadline still stands.
• Assuming “over 100” means reckless driving, or that reckless driving is “just a big speeding ticket.” One is an infraction, the other a misdemeanour with jail exposure. The charge on the paper decides the track.
• Counting the 18 months from the wrong date. It runs violation date to violation date, not from when you last sat in a traffic-school class.
• Assuming 26+ over is “still fine for traffic school because it’s only one point.” The 25-over bar is independent of the point value. Twenty-six over is out.
• Assuming a CDL holder in a personal car gets the same confidentiality as a Class C driver. The point may be avoided, but the conviction is not hidden from insurers or employers.
• Assuming a camera ticket and an officer ticket are the same thing. One is a civil penalty to the registered owner with no points; the other is a court infraction with points. Different systems, different consequences.

What Competitors Get Wrong

Single statewide totals, printed as fact. LegalClarity, Aceable, and ClerkHero publish totals for the same bands that disagree with each other by $10–$40 per band. The disagreement is the story: county penalty resolutions make a single total impossible, and this page is the one that says so plainly.

100 mph = reckless driving. Several attorney pages blur VC 22348(b) (infraction) with VC 23103 (misdemeanour). The boundary table above is the correction, and it is the page’s featured-snippet candidate.

Traffic school as automatic. Provider pages imply TVS is automatic for “minor” tickets, omitting the 25-over bar, the clerk-versus-judge variation, the don’t-pay-first trap, and the CDL non-confidentiality rule. The full checklist above is the correction.

Stale 2026 developments. No top-10 guide found in this research covers the AB 645 camera rollout (October 2026) or the VC 22352 2031 rewrite. The dated boxes above are the correction.

FTA figures as statewide fact. The “$300 civil assessment” is repeated as if uniform; Sacramento County’s own material says “up to $100” for that county. This page refuses the single figure and links to the FTA page instead.

What to Do Today: Your Checklist

Sources for this guide. Statute text: Vehicle Code sections 22348, 22349, 22350, 22351, 22352, 12810, 12810.5, 13355, 23103, 40902, 41501, 42001, 42005, 42007, and 42009 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, with Judicial Council and county-court materials for the penalty-assessment stack, Rule 4.104 eligibility, and Rule 4.210 procedure); DMV Negligent Operator Actions and Traffic Violator School pages (dmv.ca.gov); California Courts self-help and superior court traffic pages (San Francisco, Butte, and others) for courtesy-notice, ability-to-pay, and clerk-practice detail. AB 645 camera detail is news-reported (October 2026) and is labelled as such wherever it appears. Figures this guide deliberately does not print — a single statewide fine total, a single traffic-school administrative fee, point-retention periods beyond the handbook’s “36 months or longer,” any insurance premium percentage, a school-zone fine multiplier, and any single civil-assessment figure — are listed as unverified in the research brief and are withheld for that reason.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

Last verified against dmv.ca.gov: October 28, 2026. Laws and fees change — confirm current rules on dmv.ca.gov, with the court named on your citation, or at a DMV field office before you act. Statute and court-procedure sources are listed in the sources paragraph above.