Question 9 on this form says to omit traffic fines of under $300 dollars. I received two separate traffic citations in California around 2012 for speeding. These were resolved by paying a fine and attending traffic school. I have no idea what the final fine including fees ended up being, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was just over 300 bucks. I have no documentation surrounding these tickets but have obtained my DMV driving record to try and gather the information but nothing is listed.
I am leaning towards disclosing this in the comments and attaching the DMV record report to be on the safe side, but don’t really have any other information to share other than I was issued two speeding tickets and have made an effort attach my driving record to be as complete as possible.
When calculating the fine amount, make sure you are looking at just the fine, NOT court costs too. Most traffic offenses have fines that are like $70 (for example), but the court costs are $250…the total would be over $300, but not the actual fine. We look at fine amount only. A quick google search showed me that speeding 100mph over the limit in CA would have a fine amount of $200 (might not be correct for all counties, it was just a quick google search). Assuming you were just speeding and there were no additional charges, you shouldn’t have to list.
Thanks, that makes sense. However, I submitted before seeing the response. I could not provide specific details (since tickets were from 2012 and I never imagined I would have a reason to retain the information). I ended up disclosing with a brief explanation and attaching my DMV driver record (which showed no record of the citations).
I am sure people (mistakenly) disclose given the amount total paid is over 300 dollars, they just expect that to be defined as their “fine”. Could the fact that I over disclosed cause any issues? I understand these seem like silly questions, but this is the first time I’ve gone through this process, so I am learning. This is for high risk public trust.
You are fine. Having a couple speeding infractions will rarely impact your background investigation. The form and requirement were originally created when a $300 fine was significant.