Quick answer: No. You cannot expunge a Maryland speeding ticket, and you cannot expunge points. A speeding ticket is a payable citation that lives on your MVA driving record, not your criminal record — and Maryland’s expungement law, Criminal Procedure Title 10, only reaches court and criminal records. Points are not expunged either; they age off the driving record on the MVA’s own two-year schedule. The one exception is a jailable traffic offense — DUI, driving while suspended, driving without a license, reckless driving — which does create a criminal record that may be expungeable.
I’m David Waranch, and I’ve handled thousands of Maryland traffic cases. “Can I get this ticket expunged?” is one of the most common questions I hear — and it usually comes from a misunderstanding about which record the ticket is even on.
Why a Speeding Ticket Can’t Be Expunged
Expungement is a criminal-record remedy. It removes eligible court and criminal records from public inspection. A standard speeding ticket never enters that system in the first place. It is a payable citation — you can pay the preset fine instead of going to court — and it is recorded by the Motor Vehicle Administration on your driving record. There is no criminal charge, no criminal case, and therefore nothing for a Title 10 petition to reach.
The statute is explicit about this. Maryland’s automatic-expungement provision, Crim. Proc. § 10-105.1, expressly excludes Transportation Article violations that you were not required to appear on — that is, payable tickets. The Legislature carved them out precisely because they are not part of the criminal-record system. This is the core of the difference between your driving record and your criminal record: two separate systems, two separate custodians, and two entirely different ways they clear.
One caution that trips people up: paying a payable ticket is a guilty plea. It produces a conviction on your driving record and adds points. If you want to keep a ticket off your record, paying it is the opposite of what you want — that is why I so often tell clients not to simply pay a moving-violation ticket in Maryland without understanding the consequences.
Points Aren’t Expunged — They Age Off After Two Years
Points are handled by the MVA on a rolling schedule, not by any court. Under Transp. § 16-404, the MVA counts the points you accumulate over a two-year window when deciding whether to take administrative action. As convictions pass the two-year mark, those points stop counting toward that total — they “age off” on their own. You do not file anything, you do not petition a judge, and you certainly do not expunge them. Time does the work.
That is a different thing from the conviction disappearing. The underlying ticket stays visible on your driving history for years even after its points stop counting — which is exactly why insurers can still see it. If your real worry is a premium increase or an employer check, the timeline that matters is how long a Maryland ticket stays on your record, not expungement. For how the point totals themselves trigger suspension, see Maryland’s point system in a nutshell.
| What you have | Which record | How it clears |
|---|---|---|
| Points from a ticket | MVA driving record | Age off the two-year accumulation window (Transp. § 16-404) — never expunged |
| A paid or convicted speeding ticket | MVA driving record | Ages off the driving history on the MVA’s schedule — not expungeable |
| A jailable traffic conviction (DUI, DWS, no license, reckless) | Criminal record and driving record | The criminal side may be expunged under Title 10; the MVA entry is separate |
Expungement won’t clear your driving record. No petition, and no lawyer, can “expunge” points or a paid ticket — those are MVA driving-record entries, and expungement only reaches the criminal record. Points age off the two-year accumulation window on the MVA’s own schedule; the ticket itself drops off the driving history later, again on the MVA’s timeline. Anyone promising to expunge a speeding ticket or wipe your points is describing something that does not exist.
The Exception: Jailable Traffic Offenses Do Create a Criminal Record
Not every traffic charge is a payable ticket. The line the law draws is whether the offense can put you in jail. Crim. Proc. § 10-101(h) defines a “minor traffic violation” as a nonincarcerable violation of the Vehicle Law — ordinary speeding qualifies. A jailable offense does not. When a charge carries potential jail time, it is prosecuted as a criminal case, appears on Maryland Judiciary Case Search, and creates a criminal record that expungement can reach.
The common jailable traffic offenses are driving while suspended or revoked (Transp. § 16-303), driving without a license (§ 16-101), reckless driving (§ 21-901.1), and DUI/DWI (§ 21-902). Whether each of those can actually be cleared depends on the disposition and the statute — driving while suspended and driving without a license are on the eligibility list and can be expunged as convictions, which I cover in expunging a driving-while-suspended conviction. Reckless driving is a different story, and DUI runs on its own set of rules. Whichever it is, expungement clears the criminal side; the matching MVA driving-record entry is separate and does not vanish with it.
What to Do Instead of Trying to Expunge a Ticket
If the ticket has not been resolved yet, the time to protect your record is now — not after a conviction is on it. Requesting a court date instead of paying keeps a non-conviction disposition open, and probation before judgment can keep a conviction off the record entirely. Once you pay, you have pleaded guilty and both of those doors close. That prevention is far more valuable than any after-the-fact cleanup, because for a payable ticket there is no cleanup to be had.
If you were charged with a jailable offense, then expungement may genuinely be on the table — and the disposition you negotiate up front decides whether it ever becomes an option. To see which criminal traffic outcomes qualify, start with the Maryland convictions you can expunge and the rest of our expungement knowledge hub. If you’re not sure which category your charge falls into, that is exactly the kind of question worth a quick call before you make a move you can’t undo.
Common Questions
No. A Maryland speeding ticket is a payable citation on your MVA driving record, not on your criminal record, so there is no criminal case for an expungement to reach. Maryland’s automatic-expungement statute, Criminal Procedure Section 10-105.1, expressly excludes Transportation Article violations you were not required to appear on, which is what a payable ticket is. Expungement under Title 10 only clears eligible court and criminal records, so it cannot remove a speeding ticket.
You do not remove points by expungement or by filing anything. Under Transportation Section 16-404, the MVA counts your points over a rolling two-year window, and points age off that total on their own as the convictions pass the two-year mark. The underlying ticket can remain visible on your driving history for longer even after its points stop counting, which is why insurers may still see it. There is no petition or shortcut that erases points early.
Only traffic offenses that create a criminal record can be expunged, and those are the jailable ones. Ordinary payable tickets like speeding are nonincarcerable minor traffic violations and never enter the criminal system. Jailable offenses such as driving while suspended, driving without a license, reckless driving, and DUI or DWI are prosecuted as criminal cases and may be expungeable depending on the disposition and the specific statute. Driving while suspended and driving without a license convictions are on the eligibility list; reckless driving and DUI run on stricter rules.
Law Offices of David R. Waranch — 301-563-9575 · toll-free 1-877-566-2408. Hablamos Español.
Last updated: August 2026. Statutory references: Md. Code, Crim. Proc. §§ 10-101, 10-105.1; Md. Code, Transp. §§ 16-101, 16-303, 16-404, 21-901.1, 21-902. This page is general information about Maryland law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.