Citation dismissed or found not guilty: what happens to the violation

Prepare your request: evidence checklist

• Required for the adjudicated-citation request: inspection report number, event State and date, citation number and associated violation codes, and access to certified court-disposition records (Analyst Guide §5.5, p. 41).
• Supply verifiable certified court documents or a direct official court-results link that shows the final outcome and any fine or punitive court costs. Ask that the outcome be recorded for the identified associated violations; do not infer the outcome of other charges.
• Recommended by the Guide: copies of the inspection report and citation, and a clear explanation connecting each violation to the adjudicated citation. A pending case or an incomplete disposition is not evidence of a final outcome.

RoadsideProof's automated citation check looks for the citation and court disposition. That intake list is separate from the official required fields and recommended supporting records above; it does not determine the agency's decision.

Next: submit the evidence with your own DataQs request, then track it and answer requests for more information. For State requests, use the deadlines guide to check the applicable review stage and response window.

• DataQs deadlines and review stages

FMCSA's outcome table

Record treatment after verification under the outcome table on p. 32495 of the 2014 notice (79 FR 32491–32496):

• Dismissed with fine or punitive court costs: "Violation not removed" in SMS and in PSP.
• Dismissed without fine or punitive court costs: "Remove violation" in SMS and in PSP.
• Not guilty: "Remove violation" in SMS and in PSP.
• Convicted of a lesser charge: the inspection is appended to indicate the violation "Resulted in conviction of a different charge." In SMS the severity weight changes to 1, without the OOS addition (SMS Methodology p. 3-15, note 19).

Fines and incidental costs are different

A dismissal with a fine or punitive court costs is recorded in MCMIS as a conviction. Under that policy, the associated violation remains in SMS and PSP (79 FR 32495).

Payment alone does not determine the outcome. FMCSA excludes incidental expenses imposed regardless of outcome, such as scheduling fees, certified-copy charges, and attorney fees, from its conviction definition (79 FR 32495; Analyst Guide §5.4).

Different charges, original convictions, and pending cases

The inspection is annotated for conviction of a different charge in SMS and PSP. In SMS, severity becomes 1 with no additional OOS weight (79 FR 32495; SMS Methodology p. 3-15, note 19).

The violation remains in SMS and PSP under the adjudicated-citation policy. That conviction alone is not a basis for exclusion under this policy; a separate error in the inspection record requires its own supporting evidence (Analyst Guide §§5.6, 5.9).

A case held in abeyance without payment of fines or court costs is not fully adjudicated. The analyst does not change the citation adjudication record until sufficient documentation confirms the final disposition (Analyst Guide §5.6, p. 42).

The Analyst Guide treats costs or fees imposed for a diversion program as court costs qualifying as a conviction (§5.4, p. 40). A diversion or deferred-adjudication label alone does not establish a final disposition; a pending case and a documented final outcome must be distinguished.

The documents a State reviews

The requestor submits verifiable certified court disposition documents, or a direct link to official court results, through DataQs. The State verifies the documents and records the outcome (79 FR 32494–32495).

For an adjudicated-citation request, without sufficient verifiable disposition documents, the court outcome remains unknown. A missing document is not evidence of a conviction, dismissal, or not-guilty finding (Analyst Guide §§5.5–5.6).

The underlying MCMIS record

These SMS/PSP effects do not erase the underlying MCMIS violation record. MCMIS retains the record with its court-outcome annotation; only violations determined to have been recorded in error are removed from MCMIS (Analyst Guide §5.9, p. 44).

While the case is still in court

The revised State DataQs process applies to requests submitted on or after September 18, 2026. It is not retroactive and does not establish deadlines for Federal reviews. The 2026 notice allows a request to be held while the citation awaits a court or administrative disposition, but not indefinitely. States must follow FMCSA's adjudicated-citation policy (91 FR 20565–20566).

Which inspections the policy covers

"The policy announced in this document applies to inspections occurring on or after August 23, 2014." (79 FR 32492).

How RoadsideProof applies the table

This table summarizes FMCSA's adjudicated-citation policy; it is not a verbatim official table or a reading of your case. It describes record treatment after agency review, not an automatic change or advice on court strategy.

For an adjudicated-citation request, without sufficient verifiable disposition documents, the court outcome remains unknown. A missing document is not evidence of a conviction, dismissal, or not-guilty finding (Analyst Guide §§5.5–5.6).

We do not file for you. You file from your own account and you sign it, and that signature carries 18 U.S.C. 1001.