If you receive a California traffic ticket, you know you have to save your pennies before searching traffic courts near me. If you are concerned about your car accident ticket cost, here are five important factors you need to know about.
Traffic Ticket Flat Fees
Do you have to pay court fees for a speeding ticket? Unfortunately, California charges a number of fees for speeding tickets and other types of traffic infractions. Flat fees vary by type of charge, county and municipality. They include but are not limited to:
- $55 school fee for traffic violations that require traffic school
- $40 court operations assessment
- $35 criminal conviction fee
- $4 emergency medical air transportation penalty
- $1 assessment for night court
Variable Traffic Ticket Fees
How much is court cost for traffic ticket? The answer varies based on the type of ticket. In addition to the fines listed above, some fees are charged based on the amount of your fine. For every $10 of the base cost of your ticket, you will also pay:
- $10 state penalty assessment
- $9 county penalty assessment
- $5 court construction fee
- $4 DNA identification fee
- $2 state surcharge
Traffic Ticket Surcharges
California also adds a 20% surcharge to your traffic ticket total. This means if you think you owe $150, you actually owe $180.
Total Speeding Ticket Cost
The base cost of a speeding ticket is $35 for traveling 15 miles over the speed limit in California. However, you will also pay a $30 state penalty assessment, $27 county assessment, $15 court construction fee, $12 DNA fee and $6 state surcharge. This brings your ticket cost to $260 when you add the common flat fees and $312 with the surcharge. Traffic ticket lawyers may be able to reduce or eliminate some fees.
Exponential Growth
California court costs have increased dramatically, nearly doubling since 2002. In fact, most of the flat fees listed above were added in the past decade. These costs are used to fund programs and do not necessarily deter traffic violations.
