Your ticket was dismissed in court: how to get it off your CSA score

Winning in court and cleaning up your CSA record are two separate steps. The ticket can be dismissed while the violation behind it keeps counting in FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System (SMS), because the court result does not reach FMCSA’s data by itself. This guide covers what each court result does to a violation, using FMCSA’s own rules, and how to get the result onto your record through DataQs.

What each court result does

FMCSA’s SMS Methodology explains that states may issue a citation (a ticket) for a violation found at a roadside inspection, and that citation may then be decided in court. Under FMCSA’s adjudicated citations policy, “violations can be removed or set to a severity weight of 1 in the SMS” depending on the result. The DataQs Help Center lists the effect of each result:

• Dismissed or not guilty. The violation is excluded from the SMS calculations and from the PSP (Pre-Employment Screening Program) report.
• Convicted of a different charge. The violation stays, but its severity weight is set to 1 and it no longer gets the extra out-of-service weight of 2. The PSP report shows it as a conviction of a different charge. A conviction on a reduced charge is a conviction of a different charge.
• Convicted of the original charge. Nothing changes: the violation keeps its severity weight and stays on the PSP report.
• N/A, which includes abeyance. Also no change to the severity weight or the PSP report.

It does not happen on its own

The SMS Methodology is explicit: “drivers or carriers must submit certified documentation of the judicial proceeding results through a Request for Data Review (RDR) in FMCSA’s DataQs system to initiate this process.” Until that request is filed and the result is recorded against the violation, the violation is used at its normal weight, even if the court case closed months ago.

What counts as an adjudicated citation

The DataQs Help Center defines it as “a citation that has been contested through due process in a State, local or administrative tribunal, regardless of whether the action is resolved by a judge or prosecutor or as part of a plea agreement.” So a case the prosecutor dropped, or a plea to a different charge, counts as long as the result is documented by the court.

There has to be a citation in the first place. The SMS Methodology notes that violations written at a traffic stop “do not always result in the issuance of a citation to the driver, but are used in the SMS whether or not a citation is issued.” If the officer wrote the violation on the inspection report but issued no ticket for it, there is no court result to file, and the violation has to be looked at on its own facts.

How to file it, step by step

1. Match the ticket to the violation. Get the inspection report and find the violation the citation was written for. The court result changes only the violation tied to that citation, not the rest of the inspection.
2. Get certified documentation from the court.The SMS Methodology asks for “certified documentation of the judicial proceeding results.” Ask the court clerk for a certified copy of the disposition showing the result for that citation.
3. Open a Request for Data Review in DataQs. The DataQs Help Center says that if the violation resulted in a citation and you want the adjudicated outcome added to the inspection report, select “Citation associated with violation on an inspection.”
4. Say it in two sentences and attach the document. Give the inspection report number, the violation, the citation number, and the result, and attach the certified disposition with the first submission.
5. Track the request. The status shows on your RDR in the DataQs portal. If the result is recorded, the change appears after the next monthly SMS update.

Check for repeats on the same inspection

When the same violation is cited more than once on one inspection, the SMS uses it only once. If the court result covers one of those entries and another stands with no ticket behind it, the violation can keep counting. Check the whole inspection before you expect the score to move.

What it is worth

Severity weights in the SMS run from 1 to 10 within each BASIC, and an out-of-service violation adds 2. So a dismissal removes the full weight of the violation, and a conviction on a different charge can take a heavy one down to 1. The weight is then multiplied by the time weight: 3 in the first six months, 2 from six to 12 months, and 1 from 12 to 24 months. How the out-of-service weight works: how out-of-service violations count in your CSA score. For violations with no court case behind them: how to dispute a DOT violation and file a DataQ.

Sources

• FMCSA, SMS Methodology, Version 3.21 (methodology revised May 2026): adjudicated citations and Table 2-1 (pp. 2-4 to 2-5), violations used whether or not a citation is issued and the exclusion of dismissed/not-guilty results (p. 2-3), severity weights and certified documentation through DataQs (p. A-1), one count per inspection and time weights.
• DataQs Help Center, FAQs: the definition of an adjudicated citation, the SMS and PSP effect of each citation result, and the “Citation associated with violation on an inspection” option.