Do I have to go to court for my traffic ticket?

In North Carolina, sometimes when you get a ticket the officer will say something along these lines, “You HAVE to appear in court for this.”

Is that altogether true?  Not exactly.

The law allows defendants to simply pay the fines/costs on certain low-level offenses.  In those cases, you do not have to appear in court; you can just mail in the appropriate payment in the appropriate form and you’re good to go. You may have consequences from that (another blog post) but you do not have to go to court.

For other more serious offenses (and serious is relative, so bear with me) you cannot just pay that off.  SOMEONE (not necessarily you) has to appear in court and deal with the charge.  What that means is either YOU OR YOUR ATTORNEY has to show up in court and deal with the ticket.  In the traffic ticket world, this is normally for misdemeanors, which generally come in the form of speeding 16 mph over the limit or more, or reckless driving.  But there are many more.

So what the officer should say is that SOMEONE has to appear in court for this and that you cannot just pay it off.  That’s more accurate.

If you get one of these, call me!  919-929-2992.