New Fees for Appealing Traffic Tickets

As of July 1, 2009, if you are appealing a speeding or other traffic ticket, you must pay a non-refundable $25 filing fee. Although there is no mention of this fee on the citation, the fee is collected by the court at the time of the hearing. This means that even if you win the citation, you will have to pay. Because of this new fee, along the inconvenience of having to appear in court, many motorists will likely decide just to pay the citation. However, paying the citation is an admission of responsibility for the offense and not appealing can be a dangerous and costly mistake. If you have a combination of 5 citations (tickets) and accidents in a 3 year period, your license will be suspended until you take a National Safety Council driver retraining class. If you have a combination of 7 citations (tickets) and accidents in a 3 year period, your license will be automatically suspended for 60 days.  Additional citations can lead to a 4 year habitual traffic offender license revocation.