Need to pay a ticket you got in Texas but you lost your ticket where do you go?

Answer 1

If you lost the traffic ticket you were given, you need to contact the court with jurisdiction AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you remember the name of the court that was on the citation, that's great. If not, you will need to do a little research to figure out which court has jurisdiction. The first thing to do is determine what county you were in when you received the ticket. If you know that, you can use the Texas Courts Guide related link to figure out which court has jurisdiction, or at least narrow it down to a couple. You can then call the likely court or courts, and they should be able to look up the citation by your name, driver's license number, or vehicle information, and tell you how to pay it.

In Texas, traffic tickets are generally handled by Justices of the Peace or Municipal Courts. If you were in the city limits of a particular town, and that town has a municipal court, it is likely that court has jurisdiction. If you were in an unincorporated area of the county, or in a town without a municipal court, it is likely a Justice Court that has jurisdiction. Some counties have multiple Justice Courts, so you may need to view a Justice Court precinct map online (if available) or call a couple Justice Courts to find the right one.

On the Texas Courts Guide related link, select the appropriate county from the "Directory of Texas Courts by County" menu, and a directory of courts in that county will appear. Scroll down to the Justice Court and Municipal Court listings. Some Texas courts offer online payment services for traffic tickets. Often, you will need a citation number to use these services, but some allow you to look up citations by name, driver's license, or vehicle information. If you think you have found the right court, click on the "Online Resources" option and scroll down to see if that court has an online fine payment option. If not, call the phone number listed for the court to have someone look-up your citation.

You need to do this right away as there is only a limited period of time after a ticket is issued that you can pay the fine and avoid a late penalty payment. Things could get even worse if you don't contact the court before the citation hearing date. On the other hand, if you just got the ticket yesterday, you may want to wait a couple days until the ticket has been entered into the court's system.