Online Traffic Ticket Search

There are two ways you can search for your lost traffic ticket online.

First, you can use the Iowa Courts Online Search. With this option, you can get by with some basic personally identifying information.

If that doesn’t work, you can use the Iowa Courts Online Payment Search. It’s the same website drivers can use to pay their traffic tickets online. As long as you can enter your first and last name, you don’t need to know your citation number―but you must know the county in which you received the ticket.

Contact the Iowa Office of Driver Services

The Office of Driver Services will send you a tangible copy of your traffic ticket for 50 cents.

Just write a request and mail it, along with your driver’s license number and a check or money order for 50 cents to:

• Office of Driver Services

• Iowa Department of Transportation

• PO Box 9204

• Des Moines, IA 50306-9204

NOTE: Make your check or money order payable to “Treasurer, State of Iowa.”

Contact Your Clerk of Court

If you can remember the county in which you received the ticket, your county clerk’s office can provide you with anything you need to know about your ticket―for free.

Just contact your clerk, state that you need to retrieve lost traffic ticket information, and provide the office with your name and possibly your date of birth and driver’s license number.

Because your citation holds some pretty important information, be sure to ask about:

• The traffic ticket fine.
• The date by which you must pay or appear in court.
• Whether you citation is “scheduled” or “non-scheduled.” If you have a “non-scheduled” citation, it means you must appear in court.

Determine How You Will Plead

You can plead to your IA traffic ticket in one of the following ways.

• Guilty.
• No contest.
• Not guilty.

Pleading guilty or no contest produces the same results: You’ll pay your fine, deal with any related consequences (such as having the violation on your record), and possibly see an increase in auto insurance rates.

Pleading not guilty means you’ll plead your case in court and, if found not guilty, won’t have to pay the fine or deal with any penalties.

Check out Paying Your Traffic Ticket and Fighting Your Traffic Ticket for more details.