Lost Traffic Ticket in Ohio

Contact the presiding court to begin your OH traffic ticket search, and make sure you gather specific details such as the traffic ticket fine, deadline to respond, and how to make your plea.

NOTE: You may be able to find an online ticket search feature on your traffic court's website.

Find Your OH Traffic Court

Determine your presiding traffic court. Your "presiding" traffic court is the court that handles traffic tickets in the area where you received the citation—so, not necessarily your home court, unless that's where you were pulled over.

If you DO REMEMBER where you were pulled over and the court handling your ticket—great! Just contact that court for lost traffic ticket information.

If you DON'T REMEMBER, do some investigative work. What day were you traveling, or where were you heading? Did you have passengers who might remember where you were pulled over? Do you remember what kind of officer ticketed you?

Also, it might help to understand how the OH traffic courts generally work:

• Municipal Courts:
  • Most likely, a municipal court will handle your ticket if you received it in a town or city; however, if the area doesn't have a municipal court, the county court handles the ticket.
• County Courts:
  • Typically, county courts handle county-level tickets, but they can work in the place of a municipal court when necessary (i.e. the town or city doesn't have a municipal court).
• Mayor's Courts:
  • Although they're technically not part of the state's judicial branch, mayor's courts can preside over certain traffic cases—generally in the absence of a municipal court.

OH Lost Traffic Ticket Details

Whether you speak with a court clerk or use your court's website's online traffic ticket search, first find out whether you must appear in court. Some traffic violations require mandatory court appearances; if yours does, get the court location and the time and date you must appear.

Once that's out of the way, gather the following information; it will help you determine how you want to respond to your ticket and how to do so on time:

• Your OH traffic ticket details, such as:
  • The exact traffic violation.
  • The citation number.
  • The police officer's name.
  • The law enforcement agency.
  • The location, date, and time.
• All payment information, including:
  • The traffic ticket fine.
  • Any additional court costs or surcharges.
  • The deadline to pay.
  • Where and how you can pay.
• Your deadline to respond.
  • This is the deadline by which you must either plead "guilty" and pay or plead "not guilty" and schedule a hearing.

Answer Your OH Traffic Ticket

You can plead "guilty" and pay your traffic ticket fine or plead "not guilty" and schedule a hearing to challenge your ticket in court (perhaps with the help of a traffic ticket attorney).

Refer to our guides to Paying Traffic Tickets and Fighting Traffic Tickets for details on each process in Ohio.