Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the entry of any plea of guilty, the forfeiture of any bail posted or the entry of plea of nolo contendere for a violation of the traffic laws of this State or any political subdivision thereof shall have the same effect as a conviction after trial under the provisions of such traffic laws. Provided, however, that in any such case where bail is posted by the defendant, no forfeiture of such bail shall become effective until ten days following the date of arrest nor shall the defendant be required to plead prior to the elapse of such ten-day period. Provided, further that the provisions of this section shall not be construed to prohibit a defendant from voluntarily entering a plea or forfeiting bail within the ten-day period.
S.C. Code Ann. § 56-5-6220
Entry of guilty plea, forfeiture of bail posted, or entry of plea of nolo contendere to have same effect as conviction after trial
Known as the Uniform Act
The act spans §§ 56-5-10 to 56-5-990 (418 sections).
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Scott v. State (1999)
Most recently applied in Kincaid v. Government of the District of Columbia (April 2017)
1976 Act No. 482.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Carolina Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Carolina statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.