Determine Where Your Got Your Michigan Traffic Ticket

Since all traffic tickets come with a due date, you need to act fast if you cannot find your citation. The court will not accept "I lost my ticket" as a pardonable excuse if you fail to respond by the due date.

So the first thing you need to do is contact the District Court that was listed on your traffic ticket. This will be the court that's handling your case. If you can't recall the specific court, try pinpointing where you were cited by town, or, at the very least, by county.

Once you have the general area, call the presiding court. Rural counties generally have one presiding District Court. The populated counties have municipal and county District Courts. If you can only make a generalized guess on where you were ticketed, you may have to make calls to several of the surrounding courts.

Contact the Court

When you call the court, you'll be asked for your citation number. If you don't know it, be prepared to either provide your MI license plate number or Michigan drive's license number. The court clerk will then track down your ticket information and advise you on how to proceed.

Determine How You Will Plead

Once you have this information, you must decide on one of three pleas:

• Guilty
• Guilty, but with an explanation
• Not guilty

Remember to enter your plea before your ticket's due date expires.