Tennessee doesn't offer court supervision, but pretrial diversion and judicial diversion programs can keep convictions off your driving record and prevent insurance points from attaching.
What Tennessee Offers Instead of Court Supervision
Tennessee does not have a court supervision program, but it does offer pretrial diversion and judicial diversion for eligible traffic violations. Both programs allow you to complete conditions set by the court in exchange for having the charge dismissed before a conviction is entered. This means no points attach to your driving record and no violation appears on your insurance lookback.
Pretrial diversion is available for most misdemeanor traffic offenses, including speeding tickets under 25 mph over the limit and failure to yield citations. You must have no prior diversions in the county within the past five years. The prosecutor decides eligibility before your arraignment. Judicial diversion is similar but requires a guilty plea held in abeyance pending completion of court conditions, and it's available even for some charges pretrial diversion does not cover.
The distinction matters for insurance. Under current state DMV point rules, a dismissed charge does not appear on your driving abstract and does not trigger surcharges. A conviction for speeding 1-5 mph over adds one point and typically raises rates 10-20% for three years. Diversion erases the citation entirely rather than delaying its appearance.
Who Qualifies for Diversion in Tennessee
Pretrial diversion eligibility requires a clean diversion history in the county for the past five years, no pending felony charges, and a misdemeanor traffic offense that did not involve bodily injury or property damage over $2,500. Speeding tickets, stop sign violations, and most moving violations qualify. Reckless driving, DUI, and leaving the scene of an accident do not.
Judicial diversion has broader eligibility but requires you to plead guilty first. The court holds the plea in abeyance and sets conditions. If you complete them, the plea is withdrawn and the charge dismissed. If you fail, the conviction enters immediately. Judicial diversion is available for some Class A and B misdemeanors that pretrial diversion excludes, but prosecutors rarely offer it for routine traffic offenses.
You cannot use diversion if you've already been convicted. The request must be made before the court enters a judgment. If your citation shows a court date, you have until that date to request diversion. Missing the court date typically results in an automatic conviction and a failure-to-appear warrant.
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How to Request Pretrial Diversion
Contact the prosecutor's office in the county where the citation was issued within 10 days of receiving the ticket. Most counties require a written request before your arraignment date. The request should include your citation number, the charge, and a brief statement that you have no prior diversions in the county and are requesting pretrial diversion.
The prosecutor reviews your driving record and criminal history. If approved, you'll receive a diversion agreement outlining conditions such as court costs, a diversion fee of $100-$350 depending on the county, and a supervision period of 90 days to one year. You must also complete a driver improvement course if the charge involved a moving violation. Tennessee accepts online courses approved by the state Department of Safety.
If you complete all conditions within the supervision period, the prosecutor files a dismissal motion and the court dismisses the charge. No conviction appears on your DMV record. If you violate conditions or receive another citation during the supervision period, the original charge proceeds to trial and diversion is revoked.
What Happens to Your Insurance Rate During Diversion
Your carrier will not see the citation while diversion is pending because no conviction has been entered. Tennessee law requires convictions to be reported to the Department of Safety within 10 days, but citations without convictions do not appear on the driving abstract carriers pull at renewal.
If you fail diversion and the charge is convicted, the conviction date is backdated to the original citation date. This means the three-year surcharge window starts from the date of the ticket, not the date diversion was revoked. A speeding ticket from January 2024 that is convicted in June 2024 after failed diversion still counts as a January 2024 violation for insurance lookback purposes.
Carriers that write non-standard policies for drivers with prior violations typically do not surcharge pending diversions, but they may decline to quote until the diversion outcome is final. Progressive, State Farm, and GEIC commonly require proof of dismissal before removing a pending citation from underwriting review.
How Long Diversion Conditions Last
Pretrial diversion supervision periods range from 90 days to one year depending on the charge and the county. Speeding tickets under 15 mph over typically receive 90-day supervision. Tickets over 15 mph or involving multiple violations receive six months to one year. You must complete all conditions before the supervision period ends or the charge proceeds to trial.
Judicial diversion periods are set by the court and typically last one to two years for misdemeanor traffic charges. The court may extend the period if you request more time to complete conditions, but extensions are not automatic. Missing a condition deadline results in immediate conviction.
Once diversion is successfully completed and the charge dismissed, the citation is expunged from your criminal record but may still appear on court databases for five years to track prior diversion use. Insurance carriers do not have access to expunged citations unless you disclose them on an application.
What to Do If Your County Doesn't Offer Diversion
Not all Tennessee counties offer pretrial diversion for traffic offenses. Rural counties with part-time prosecutors may not have formal diversion programs. In these counties, you can request an informal continuance or prayer for judgment continued (PJC) at your court appearance. A PJC delays sentencing indefinitely while you remain on unsupervised probation. If you receive no new violations for the period set by the judge, the charge is dismissed.
PJC is not guaranteed and requires the judge's discretion. You must appear in court, plead guilty or no contest, and request the PJC before sentencing. The judge sets conditions such as court costs and a supervision period of six months to one year. No conviction enters during the PJC period, so no points attach and no surcharge triggers.
If PJC is not available, your next option is to contest the citation at trial or negotiate a reduced charge. Reducing a speeding ticket from 20 mph over to 10 mph over drops the point value from three points to two points in Tennessee, which can reduce the insurance surcharge by 10-15 percentage points depending on the carrier.
