Commercial Drivers Licensing Resources
For Judges

Your resource
for CDL cases

Welcome to the Commercial Driver Licensing Resource website!  You are invited to navigate and review this site for useful judicial tools and resources that are designed to help you better understand CDL safety, case adjudication, sentencing parameters, State and Federal regulations and the latest industry innovations and trends.  As a project partnership between the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and The National Judicial College, we hope you find this site complementary to the important tasks preformed by judges who work each day to keep our roads and highways safe, save lives and thoughtfully apply the law to CDL holders. 

State and Federal Laws

State Cases and Laws

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Continuing Education

News and Innovation

Tribal Courts

CDL Issues in Indian Country

You can find resources dedicated to adjudicating CDL cases in tribal courts at our CDL Issues in Indian Country website.

Additional Resources

Awareness of Commercial Driver

Awareness of Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Cases Involving Marijuana for Judges & Officers of the Court

By Honorable Larry Sage
05/02/2023

The Department of Transportation (DOT) prohibits the use of certain drugs and requires periodic drug and alcohol testing for all Commercial Driver’s Licensed (CDL) holders/drivers.  In the National Judicial College’s (NJC) Webinar on 04/18/2023, it was reported that the alcohol-related civilian driving arrests were substantial but alcohol-related fatalities were declining.  That was the good news, but the bad news included a rise in drug and marijuana-impaired driver cases.

Click the button to read more.

New Podcast: “Masking” conceals unsafe commercial drivers making roadways hazardous

“Masking” is a term used for when people with commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) get lenient treatment in our nation’s courts. This allows offenders to hide their traffic offenses and stay on our highways without retribution.

Masking, although too often commonplace, is actually a violation of federal law and prohibited and states could get in trouble if their judges do not comply, according to retired Judge Gayle Williams-Byers.

Listen to this podcast to find out more:

FMCSA Has Gaps and Challenges in Its Oversight of CDL Disqualification Regulations

We’re pleased to introduce a white paper written by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on July 14, 2021. This self-initiated audit was conducted to assess FMCSA’s oversight of States’ actions to disqualify commercial drivers when warranted.

About Us

The National Judicial College has been teaching judges for 60 years

Created more than a half-century ago at the recommendation of a U.S. Supreme Court justice, The National Judicial College remains the only educational institution in the United States that teaches courtroom skills to judges of all types from all over the country, Indian Country and abroad. The categories of judges served by this nonprofit and nonpartisan institution, based in Reno, Nevada, since 1964, decide more than 95 percent of the cases in the United States.