Traffic ticket amnesty program begins in California

Effective Thursday, a new amnesty program in California is helping residents who can’t afford to pay spiraling traffic tickets and court fees.

In Monterey County, the traffic court division said there aremore than 23,000 cases that might be eligible. That’s an estimated $22 million worth of outstanding unpaid tickets and penalties.

Traffic Court Commissioner Chris Martin said the backlog is causing headaches for staff and for the drivers who can’t afford to pay the tickets.

“These are file boxes full of old citations and I don’t know how far they go back but someone of them are going back 10, 12, 15 years,” said Martin.

Martin said under the amnesty program, thousands of low-income drivers can cut their traffic ticket debt by 50 percentto 80 percent.

Amnestyonly applies to violations due before Jan. 1,2013. To sign-up, you need to go to the court house’s revenue division – not the Department of Motor Vehicles.

“Please do not visit the DMV office to apply for this amnesty program. You must contact the court in the jurisdiction where you received the traffic ticket,” said Jaime Garza with the DMV.

And not all tickets qualify.

“Most of them are going to be vehicle code violations, infractions. Other cases such as cases of driving under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving and misdemeanors that are not vehicle code related won’t be eligible,” said Martin.

Once you get them paid off, then you can get your license issued or reinstated. Martin said that’s good news for the driver and the county.

“Ultimately the benefit we’re going to see is getting a lot of these cases weeded out of being having to carried year after year by the courts,” said Martin.