Texas and South Carolina are two of 45 member states to the Interstate Driver’s License Compact. They are subsequently required to communicate information regarding tickets received in their state to your “Home State” DMV, which for you would be Texas.
Long stretches of highway on Interstate 10 may be a safe place to get above the speed limit for Texans, but South Carolina police officers heavily patrol similarly open stretches of highway in South Carolina. An unfamiliar driver may also find themselves with a ticket because they did not notice posted signage and South Carolina custom and law differs from their home state. No matter what the moving violation, Nosal & Jeter, LLP can help drivers licensed in Texas with their South Carolina ticket.
Everything is bigger in Texas – including the fines
Texas has extremely strict and harsh traffic laws, and more specifically, fines. The Driver Responsibility Program works to ensure that Texas drivers follow all traffic laws and levies stiff penalties and fines on a “point system” and a “conviction system.” Texas assigns 2 points for an out-of-state conviction and 3 points for out-of-state convictions that result in a crash. For every point on the license, the state charges the driver $100 – up to 6 points. Past 6 points, the driver is charged a $100 fee per year and their per-point fee goes up another $25, in increments of 6 points. There is no limit to how much the state of Texas can charge. Under the conviction system, some convictions can carry a much heavier fine – such as a “DWI with Blood-Alcohol Concentration of 0.16 or More,” for which there is a surcharge of $2,000.
These fines are in addition to the fine associated with the ticket in South Carolina. Texas is a signatory to the Nonresident Violators Compact (NRVC), as is South Carolina. The compact requires any member state to report driving violations cited to a nonresident motorist to the driver’s home DMV. Thus, if a driver licensed in Texas does not handle their South Carolina citation, Texas will suspend their license until the matter is resolved.
Fees can and will pile up against Texas drivers cited in South Carolina. Heavy fines will be issued from both South Carolina and Texas. This is also in addition to the insurance premium increase that follows almost any traffic conviction.
Do not simply pay the fine for your South Carolina ticket. If you do so, you are pleading guilty – possibly to a misdemeanor offense. Protect your driving record and insurance rate and reduce your intrastate fees. Call an experienced South Carolina Traffic Attorney to protect your Texas license.
TX Driver with SC Speeding Ticket
South Carolina Traffic Attorney Peter J. Nosal is a former police officer with extensive experience working with this kind of citation. Let Nosal & Jeter, LLP represent you to save you the hassle, the license points, and the insurance premium spike.
