Pay Traffic Ticket in Utah

Know Your Options

In Utah you have the option to plead guilty and pay your ticket or plead not guilty and go before a judge or jury if you cannot come to an agreement with a prosecuting attorney.

What it Means to Pay Your UT Traffic Ticket

Paying a non-criminal traffic ticket is an admission of guilt. This means:

• You could easily pay your traffic ticket fines online, or appear in court. The state offers a great resource online that describes which offenses can be handled online or in person. The advantage of going before a prosecuting attorney is the possibility of getting the charges reduced. In other words, you might be able to plea bargain for lesser penalties.
• The state will assign points to your driver’s license, depending on the severity of your moving violation. These points are based on the relationship between traffic violations and accidents.
• Additional points to your driving record could increase your auto insurance rates or affect your job or employment options (if your work requires you to maintain a clean driving record). If you get more than 200 points in a three-year period, you could end up with a suspended driver’s license.
• In some cases, the court will grant you permission to take a state-approved defensive driving course. This could reduce 50 points on your driving record. Additionally, your auto insurance company might give you a discount on your car insurance rates.

If you fail to pay your Utah traffic ticket by the deadline stated on your citation on your citation, or if you don’t go to court on that date, the court can issue a warrant for your arrest and suspend your driver’s license. Instead, contact the court if you can’t make the deadline or you need to reschedule.

Pleading Guilty as a Utah CDL Driver

The procedure for paying your traffic ticket remains the same as any other driver. However, those with a Utah commercial driver’s license, must also notify their employer within 30 days of conviction for any traffic violations no matter what type of vehicle they were driving; parking tickets don’t count. For more on traffic violations and penalties for CDL drivers, refer to our page on traffic ticket fines and penalties and the Utah’s Commercial Driver License Handbook.

Pleading Not Guilty

You always have the option to dispute the traffic ticket instead of paying it. This requires appearing in court, entering a plea of not guilty, and negotiating with the prosecuting attorney. Learn more on our page titled Fighting Your Traffic Ticket.

Pay Your Utah Traffic Ticket Online

In some cases, drivers have the option to pay their traffic tickets online through the courts. In others, you can pay through a city site. For example, if you were ticketed in Salt Lake City, you might be able to make a payment online through the city site.

If you can’t find your citation using the statewide system, it could be that:

• You entered the citation number incorrectly
• The system isn’t associating your citation number with a particular court; try searching without indicating the court
• You must appear before a judge; check to see if your offense requires a court appearance
• The citation hasn’t been filed yet with the court
• There isn’t an account specifying that you owe any money

Keep in mind juvenile court payments are not yet available online.

Determine Where You Got Your Traffic Ticket

Check your traffic ticket for payment details; usually a citation includes info on deadlines, fine amounts and whether you need to make a court appearance. If this isn’t clear, keep reading this page. If you’ve misplaced your UT traffic citation, visit our page on lost traffic tickets.

The state handles traffic and speeding tickets on the county level; therefore knowing the name of the county in which you were cited will help you narrow down where to make your payment. Look on the actual citation for this info.

Visit the Proper County Website

Once you narrow down the location where you were cited, contact the county court handling your traffic ticket if paying online isn’t an option. Inquire about payment options (by mail, in person, etc.) and acceptable methods of payment.

Pay Your Traffic Ticket

Whether you choose to make your payment online, by mail or in person, be sure you do so on or before the deadline posted on your traffic ticket. Ignoring that date will only stiffen the penalties and possibly increase the fines. If you’re required to go to traffic court AND you can’t make your court date, contact the court about rescheduling or having a traffic ticket attorney stand in for you.

Get Points Removed from Your Driving Record

Once you plead guilty and pay your Utah traffic ticket, the state will add points to your driving record. Because added points can ultimately decrease your driving privileges and increase your auto insurance rates, check out the three ways you can start cleaning up your driving record:

• Take an approved defensive driving course once every three years to have 50 points removed
• Drive for one year without being convicted of a moving traffic violation to have half the points removed
• Drive for two years without being convicted of a moving traffic violation to have all the points removed

For more on this, check out our page on point reduction.

Check Your Driving Record

After paying your ticket, expect to see the number of points on your driving record go up. Give it some time for the ticket to be processed, and then make it a point to check your driving record; conviction of some traffic offenses reaches the Utah Driver License Division within ten days of fine payment. Do this to ensure the state’s record accurately reflects the proper number of points. Learn more on Utah’s point system.

Shop for Better Auto Insurance Rates

Once you pay your ticket and check the resulting driving record points, inquire with your auto insurance company on how the violation will affect your rates. It’s likely you’ll see an increase in your car insurance premium the next time you renew your policy. Get ahead of the added expense by shopping online to compare auto insurance rates.