Everyone knows how big of a hassle it is to get a traffic ticket, especially if you hope to contest the ticket. The hassle is even bigger if you receive the ticket in a different state or county than the one you live in. What are your options in this situation? Can you handle the ticket in your local area instead? This guide, and a traffic lawyer, like from The Law Office of Mark T. Hurt, will answer these questions and provide you with all the information you need.
Paying a Ticket
Modern tickets can be paid remotely quite easily. Instructions will be provided with the ticket to pay it through the mail or online. It should go without saying that you can pay your ticket from your home country through these methods. However, you will not have the option to pay your ticket in person at your local clerk’s office. If you wish to pay a traffic ticket in person, you need to travel to the county where it was issued.
Contesting a Ticket
If you wish to contest a ticket, the same rules apply. You will have to travel to the county where the ticket was issued to contest it. You can try to request that the case be moved to your home county, but this request is almost never granted. There needs to be very good reasons for why you cannot travel to the county where the ticket was issued. Given the fact that you were recently driving in that county to receive the ticket, there are very few valid reasons why you will not be allowed to travel there again to contest the ticket.
Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that you will be successful in contesting the ticket. You may travel to the county and contest the ticket, only to end up having to pay the full ticket on top of travel costs. For this reason, most people recommend simply paying tickets received outside of your home county or counties that are a short trip away.
Because of the hassle in contesting these kinds of traffic tickets, you should be on your best driving behavior while on a trip. You should not give officers any reason to give you a ticket. Additionally, some reports show that police officers are more likely to give tickets to cars with foreign license plates simply because they know these tickets are less likely to be contested. It may feel unfair, but it is all the more reason to be extremely careful while driving in a different state.