Methodology & sources
Every figure on this site comes from a primary source — a state statute, a judicial-council or court-system fine schedule, or a state DMV publication — and every page shows its citations and retrieval dates. The dataset behind the site covers 50 states, 237 fine-tier rows and 160 itemized surcharges, compiled from 324 cited sources retrieved 2026-07-17 to 2026-07-17. States differ in WHO sets the number a driver actually pays: a statewide schedule fixes the amounts everywhere in 17 states; the statute itself carries the amounts (or ranges) in 20 states; the statute only caps the fine — each court sets the amount — in 6 states; each local court sets the amount under a broad cap in 7 states. That difference is rendered honestly on every page — a figure is labeled state-set only where state law fixes it, "cap only" where the statute sets a ceiling, and court-set where a local court picks the amount, in which case no exact statewide total is invented. Fine schedules move on legislative cycles, so the dataset is re-verified against its sources on an annual cadence, and a guard refuses any refresh that silently shrinks coverage.
Data sources
| Source | Publisher | License | Retrieved | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State traffic / vehicle code statutes | State legislatures (official code sites; faithful public mirrors recorded with the statute citation) | Edicts of government — not subject to copyright | 2026-07-17 – 2026-07-17 | The sections that set or cap speeding fines, define enhancement zones, and fix criminal-speed thresholds. Where a mirror bot-blocks direct reads, the text is captured via the Internet Archive with the original URL recorded. |
| Judicial-council / court-system fine schedules | State judicial councils and court systems (e.g., California's Uniform Bail and Penalty Schedules, court uniform fine schedules and payables lists elsewhere) | Public court publications; edicts of government | 2026-07-17 – 2026-07-17 | Where a state publishes one, the schedule is the authoritative statement of what a payable ticket costs — including the assessment arithmetic — and it outranks secondary descriptions of the same numbers. |
| State DMV / driver-services publications | State DMVs, DDS/DPS agencies | Public state publications | 2026-07-17 – 2026-07-17 | License points per violation tier and accumulation consequences (suspension thresholds). |
Source standards
Three source classes, in order of preference — statute text, court fine schedules, DMV publications — and nothing else. Law-firm pages, traffic-school marketing, and blogs are never a source for a number here. Every per-state record stores each source's URL, its retrieval date, and a verbatim quote of the sentence carrying the number, so any figure can be re-checked against its origin without judgment calls.
Coverage, counted from the data
50 states · 237 fine-tier rows · 160 itemized surcharges/assessments · 324 cited sources retrieved 2026-07-17 to 2026-07-17 · data version state-fines-2026-07-18.
These counts are derived from the dataset at build time — the build fails if this page and the data disagree. Nothing on this page is hand-maintained.
The certainty taxonomy
States differ in WHO sets the dollar amount a driver actually pays: 17 run a statewide schedule that fixes the amounts everywhere; 20 write the amounts (or ranges) into the statute itself; 6 cap the fine by statute and let each court set the amount; 7 leave the amount to each local court under a broad cap. Every dollar figure on this site carries one of three labels:
What this site deliberately refuses to state
Freshness and the shrink guard
Fine schedules move on legislative cycles — California re-adopts its Uniform Bail and Penalty Schedules every January 1; statutes amend on session cadence. The dataset records an effective or edition date per source where the source states one, and the whole compilation is re-verified against its sources on an annual cadence.
A structural guard refuses any refresh that silently shrinks coverage: the pipeline records a high-water mark (states, tiers, sources), and a build below it aborts rather than publishing a quietly smaller site. A partial refresh cannot masquerade as a full one.
Corrections
If a figure here does not match the source it cites, the source is right and this site has a bug. The contact page says exactly what to include so the report can be checked against the original and fixed.