Online Tool Aims to Lessen Sting of Traffic Tickets

California’s traffic fines and fees are among the highest in the country, but an online tool now available at courthouses statewide is easing the burden for low-income residents.

People can use the online MyCitations to ask for fee reductions, arrange payment plans or community service, bypassing time-consuming paper requests and court appearances.

“It’s a program that has helped many, many Californians,” said Shelley Curran, administrative director of the California Judicial Council. Since the 2019 launch, about 177,000 people have filed MyCitations requeststo cut their fines by an average of $277 totaling about $49 million in reductions, according to the Judicial Council.

The online tool started as a pilot in 2019 within seven counties’ superior courts. Access expanded to 40 local courts by 2023, before becoming available in all 58 California counties this year. Sacramento and Orange counties were the last to come on board in June.

“Fines are supposed to be punishment for violating the law, (and) it has two goals: to punish and deter. (But) the fees are funding government,” said Lisa Foster, co-executive director of Washington, D.C.-based advocacy Fine and Fees Justice Center, and a former director of the Office for Access to Justice at the Department of Justice.

“When we raise taxes through the justice system ... it’s harmful to people and is undermining their financial stability,” she said.

Foster is among those who cheer the expansion of MyCitations even as they say the state must do more to lessen the burden on the least able to pay. She lauded MyCitations as innovative and important, saying the tool should be implemented nationwide.

But, the former San Diego Superior Court judge added, the tool’s popularity also exposes the deeper issues of California’s steep fines and fees and the burden placed on financially vulnerable Californians.

“It tells us that the state is bankrupting families to bankroll itself. (MyCitations) reduced fees and fines by $50 million before it went statewide — that’s hundreds of thousands of Californians who were sacrificing for taxes,” Foster said.

The program, Foster said, “is not a solution, but a Band-Aid.”

The new tool has simplified the process to seek a break on fees, and many judges are granting the reductions, the Judicial Council said.

In 2023, 83 percent of ability-to-pay requests received via MyCitations were approved by the courts for a reduction, according to the Judicial Council. Last year, 49 percent of those who submitted requests to the MyCitations tool reported receiving some type of public benefit, and 89 percent reported incomes at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level.

All California traffic and infraction tickets now have information about the MyCitations tool and how to access it. The Judicial Council has also posted a demonstration on YouTube.

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