What do American traffic tickets look like?

Question

To my American colleagues:
Here in Ontario Canada our traffic tickets have the officers name, defendant name, address, dl # etc., the section wording and number and at the bottom the set fine for out of court settlement.
The back of the ticket gives three options: guilty, not guilty, guilty with an explanation.

Many people in this category ask what their fines will be for a certain speeding charge.
Why don't they know this?
Isn't it indicated on the ticket?
Here in Ontario there is an out of court settlement (send in payment) for all speeding charges up to 49km/hr over the limit. Speeding above that gets a summons with a date on it to attend court (where a Justice of the peace determines monetary fine and suspension time).

Just curious, thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Every jurisdiction in the US is different. American traffic tickets (traffic summons, also called citations, or traffic tags) vary widely from one state to another, and from one jurisdiction (county or city) to another, so there is not just one form.

Here in this state (California), if you are cited for a moving violation (as opposed to illegal or overtime parking tickets), the schedule of bail is not included on the ticket itself. That is considered the role of the court to determine. The driver is told to wait for about ten days for the computers to catch up with the ticket, and we receive in the mail a formal copy of the summons, and the option to pay by mail a specific fine (set by a schedule depending on the nature of the offense, and prior convictions ) or appear before a date specified in court to protest the ticket (plead not guilty, and go to trial, which can be scheduled that day, or a later date.)

The reason for the delay in mailing the formal computer-printed ticket is for the court to ascertain that there are no further outstanding tickets, or arrest warrants for other crimes or offenses. It also reports the offense charged to the state (or another state's) Department of Motor Vehicles, and verifies the current address of the driver and registration of the vehicle, current insurance coverage, and also it will include other prior offenses or license suspensions within the state, or any of the other 45 states that are hooked together in a computer bank to list traffic offenses nationwide (I think 5 states are not included in this computer databank). (Also, since 9-11, they can double check to verify that this is not one of the thousands of phony counterfeit driver's licenses printed and sold to illegal aliens from another state, or victims of "identity theft" where two people have the same name !)

To be sure, there are offenses that must be handled by a personal appearance rather than "forfeiting the bail" (paying the fine by mail). But for most speeding charges a driver can do this by mail. In some jurisdictions, they can pay by check (or as you Canadians and Brits say, by cheque,) money order or even by credit card.Some courts now allow payment by funds transferred on the internet.
Large fines can be protested in court, and extenuating circumstances discussed with a judge, and a reduced fine or schedule of payments might be arranged, or community service in lieu of a fine.

Answer 2

Depending on where, as in what state and county one gets a ticket in, there may not be an actual fine printed on the ticket. Some states will mail a ticket to another state with a posted fine for out of court settlement, with the option to return to that state to question the fine.

Answer 3

i live in ontario and in the usa. the tickets can vary in the usa from city to county to state.

in the usa you never know for sure the price of ticket why? it all depends on if you fight if you had a good record. it can never reported an abeyance, it can nothng. we have moving violations and non moving and they can all be different in price and action.

speeding here in the usually goes on your record and it affects your insurance. speed limits vary from locale to locale unlike the 3 set speeds in ontario. that one made me laugh!

btw our driver license fees yes i spelled the right not licence, are much less our driving handbooks are free unlike ontario. ontario is a huge massive ripoff imo.

in the us the driver handbooks and laws often explain the difference your's do not. simple.

us has open discoslure laws ontario does not. it means we have to spell things out in writting in laws and policy while in ontario it is not required.

say a ticket could be 1600 for not having isn. well if you had a good reason you could take a class pay a fine and never have ti go on your record. teh fine may be say only 500 paid over time. i got a ticket twice that both times the judge threw out as the cop was wrong. your cops btw make 3x the amt american cops do and they imo are more honest.

most of our cops now have cameras and mics on the cars me, i carry a camera just in case, and it holds up in courts. your cops are fighting background checks which is standard in the usa and they do not want the cameras in the cars. corruption.

we have our name or the cars owners name on the ticket and the cops time date, and all tickets are triplcates for records.

and avg ontario cop makes 100,000 a year in the us maybe 30,000

Answer 4

It is usually on the ticket with all the basic info you listed. Why do they ask anyway? Come on brother, you are a cop and have to ask?