Lost Traffic Ticket in Montana

Perhaps the best way to conduct a traffic ticket search in Montana is with the traffic court handling your citation. When you contact the court, be prepared to provide basic information such as your name, driver license number, and license plate number.

Locate Your MT Traffic Court

Your presiding traffic court (i.e. the court that handles citations in the area where you received your ticket) can provide you with all your lost traffic ticket details once you provide them with some basic personal and driving-related information including your name, driver license number, and license plate number.

Note that different courts handle different types of tickets and/or tickets issued by certain types of officers. Overall, Montana's Courts of Limited Jurisdiction include justice courts, city courts, and municipal courts.

• If YOU KNOW which is your traffic court, use Montana's court locator tool to find the contact information for that court.
• If YOU DON'T KNOW which is your traffic court, try:
  • Starting with the courts in your home county; perhaps then branch out to the surrounding counties.
  • Thinking about when you were driving (the day or week) or where you were going (a doctor's appointment or work) when you received the ticket. This might help you remember where you were.
  • Asking any passengers if they remember where you were when you were pulled over.

If you still can't find your court, you might try contacting local law enforcement agencies and branching out to those in neighboring cities and counties until an officer can help you.

Online Traffic Ticket Search

Currently, Montana works with CitePayUSA so drivers can pay their citations online, and logging into this system might help you find information about your lost traffic ticket.

However, CitePayUSA requires your citation number, and because you've lost your ticket you might not have that number available.

Find Lost Traffic Ticket Details

You must respond by the date listed on the citation; otherwise, you face additional penalties such as fines and even license suspension.

Therefore, it's crucial you locate the appropriate court as soon as possible and find out:

• Whether your violation requires a court appearance.
  • What is the court's address, and what date and time must you appear?
• Your deadline to respond.
  • Your deadline to plead "guilty" and pay your fine or plead “not guilty" and schedule a hearing.
• Your traffic ticket details.
  • Find out your exact violation, citation number, date and time of the violation, the presiding officer, and violation location.
  • This information will help you determine how to respond (and help you and a traffic ticket attorney prepare a case, should you plead “not guilty").
• If you choose to plead "guilty" and pay, ask for:
  • Your exact amount. This includes the traffic ticket fine as well as any applicable court fees and other surcharges.
  • The court's policies on payment options and methods. Are you eligible to pay online, or must you pay by mail or in person? Can you use a credit card, cash, personal check, or some other form of payment?

Enter Your MT Traffic Ticket Plea

As mentioned above, you have a deadline to “respond" to your ticket; when you “respond," you're going to either:

• Plead "guilty" and pay the fine (and accept any other penalties).
  OR
• Plead "not guilty" and fight your traffic ticket in court.

Refer to Pay Traffic Ticket and Fight Traffic Ticket for details on each process.