The penalty points system is silent. Points add up somewhere in a register, nobody sends you running statements, and then one day a notice arrives: you have reached twelve points, hand in your driving licence card within five working days. Most people discover at that moment that they had ten points they knew nothing about.
What happens and when
You lose your driving licence on the expiry of five working days from the day the notice is delivered. Not when you hand in the card, not by any decision, simply by the deadline passing. The Supreme Administrative Court says so repeatedly: the driver loses the licence even if they do not hand in the card within the deadline. Anyone who gets behind the wheel after that is driving without a licence, and that is no longer a misdemeanour worth a few hundred crowns.
Objections
You can file objections against the recording of points. Objections filed after reaching twelve points interrupt the running of the deadline: until the authority has finally decided on them, you do not lose the licence and may drive. That is their main practical effect and also their trap: objections must have substance. The authority examines whether the record was made in accordance with its basis, that is, with the final decision on the misdemeanour. It does not re-examine whether you committed the misdemeanour. The time for that was when the penalty order arrived.
Objection proceedings can take a long time. The Regional Court in Prague accepted that proceedings in one case had been unreasonably long, and yet did not set the decision aside: the length of proceedings does not in itself make them unlawful. So time works for you only until the authority decides.
After a year
You can apply for the licence to be returned no earlier than one year after losing it. If a driving ban longer than a year was also imposed for the last misdemeanour, that one counts. The conditions are a re-examination of professional competence, that is, a test at a driving school, and proof of medical and psychological fitness. Points for good behaviour are not deducted at twelve points; the court expressly rejected that: after reaching twelve points the only route is an application for return.
What this rests on
No advice on this page is an opinion. Each one has a section of the law and a court decision behind it. Click through, the full text is on Europaius.
Statute
- § 123c zák. o silničním provozuon reaching 12 points the authority notifies the driver and calls on them to hand in the card; the licence is lost on the expiry of 5 working days from delivery
- § 123f zák. o silničním provozuobjections to the recording of points; after reaching 12 points they interrupt the running of the deadline until the decision on the objections is final
- § 123d zák. o silničním provozuapplication for return no earlier than 1 year after loss; conditions are a re-examination of professional competence and medical and psychological fitness
- § 123e zák. o silničním provozudeduction of points after 12, 24 and 36 months without a new misdemeanour
Case law
- 4 As 64/2024 (Nejvyšší správní soud, 9. 4. 2024)the driver loses the licence when the deadline expires, even without handing in the card; objections filed postpone the loss until the decision on them is final; after 12 points no points can be deducted, only return applied for
- 6 As 97/2023 (Nejvyšší správní soud, 31. 5. 2023)loss of the driving licence and seizure of the driving licence card have different consequences; return of the licence requires proof of professional competence
- 3 As 65/2025 (Nejvyšší správní soud, 12. 5. 2025)objections filed 6 days after delivery of the 12-point notice; the authority reviewed the basis of the records and dismissed the objections, the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the cassation complaint
- 59 A 53/2023 (Krajský soud v Praze, 11. 11. 2025)the length of the objection proceedings was unreasonable, but that in itself does not make the decision on the objections unlawful
A different situation?
- A penalty order for a misdemeanour has arrived
- You want your driving licence back
- The police took your driving licence on the spot