Lost Traffic Ticket in New Mexico

The traffic court handling your citation can provide you with lost traffic ticket details such as your fines, deadlines, and payment methods. Also, you might be able to track down the information using the state's case lookup feature.

Depending on your situation, you can contact your traffic court or use the state's case lookup tool to find information about your lost NM traffic ticket.

Contact Traffic Court

Generally, magistrate and municipal courts handle traffic ticket cases.

Understand that these are the magistrate and municipal courts in the area where you received the citation, so this doesn't necessarily mean your home city or county court. So, contact the court that presides over traffic violation cases where the officer pulled you over.

If you don't remember where you got the citation, try contacting the court in your home city or county first; you might have been close to home. If that doesn't work, branch out to a few neighboring areas.

Then you can:

  • Try to remember if you were going to—or coming from—a specific place such as school, work, or a family member's or friend's home.
  • Think about any well-known landmarks you might have passed right before or after you were ticketed.
  • Ask your passengers if they remember where you pulled over.
  • Try to remember the kind of uniform the officer was wearing; even remember the colors can help you determine if it was a city, county, or state police officer.
  • Look at the state courts map to try to pinpoint the general area.

NM Case Lookup

You might find your lost traffic ticket information using the state's online case lookup tool.

Currently, you can search for cases using basic information such as your full name, driver's license number, and date of birth—which is convenient, considering you don't have your traffic ticket to enter any citation-related information.

NOTE: If you're able to find your case, but the results don't provide all the information you need to respond to your ticket by the deadline try contacting the court directly.

Record NM Traffic Ticket Details

You must respond to your traffic ticket by the deadline printed on your citation; otherwise, you could face additional penalties like extra fines and even license suspension. Thus, it's critical you gather the details you need to respond so you can enter your plea by the deadline.

When you contact the court, ask about:

  • Any required court appearance;
    • If so, find out the court location as well as the date and time you must appear.
  • Your deadline to respond to the ticket.
    • Depending on your decision, this might mean pleading "guilty" and paying the fine or pleading "not guilty" and scheduling a hearing. Either way, you must do so by the deadline.
  • Specific traffic ticket information.
    • Such information includes the traffic violation, the citation number, where and when you received the ticket, and the officer who ticketed you.
    • This information is important for paying your ticket AND for determining whether you want to fight your ticket in court (also, a traffic ticket attorney can look at this information and help you decide).
  • Your traffic ticket fine.
    • Also find out if you're responsible for any additional fees or surcharges.
  • How you can pay your fine.
    • Your court might accept payments online, by mail, or over the phone.
    • Be sure to ask about payment methods like checks, credit cards, and cash.

Enter Your NM Traffic Ticket Plea

Now that you've found your lost traffic ticket information, it's time to plead to your violation.

Refer to our Pay Traffic Ticket and Fight Traffic Ticket sections to learn about the pros and cons of pleading "guilty" and paying or pleading "not guilty" and challenging your ticket in court.

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