Q: Im late paying my first speeding ticket ever. I live in illinois and im really worried about whats going to happen?

A: Hello Asker,

In almost all counties (Cook County where Chicago is located is a notable exception), the clerk of the circuit court will assign a court date for your case where either you or an attorney must appear and the option to simply pay the ticket without a court date disappears. Additionally, fines are usually increased to around $120-$250 ish because of court costs (varies by county). Failure to do so can trigger a number of results I discuss below.

One of a few things will happen in such a situation. For minor moving violations, it is common for the court to enter what is known as an ex parte judgment on such cases. This is a judgment in one's absence and the usual fine is $120. In such a case, the fine would need to paid. Failure to pay the fine can result in a license suspension or inability to renew your license (depends on the state you are licensed in. For instance, in Illinois, such failures to pay prevent renewal or new issuance of licenses).

If you deposited your license as bond on the case, the most common outcome is a failure to appear judgment being recorded. This causes a suspension of your driving privileges until either compliance is made or you arrange to appear personally or have an attorney appear. This can often be cleared by payment of the fine just as above but there is often a $70 reinstatement fee attached as well that may apply despite being an out of state driver.

A new court date may also be set if you fail to appear on your court date.

In RARE circumstances, a warrant may issue. In truth, this is extremely unlikely and I only have only seen it once and all parties (the prosecutor, the judge, and myself) were completely dumbfounded by why a warrant was issued but I will mention it is a rare possibility seeing as how I have seen it happen once in my years of practice.

It would be advisable to at least speak to an attorney about the risks of not addressing the case before choosing to ignore such a demand. Additionally, hiring an attorney can help reduce the impact to whatever extent is possible particularly if you are a commercial license holder.

Hope that helps and let us know if you have any additional questions!

Sincerely,

Jason A. Wilkins

Traffic Attorney

(630) 445-2293