California is granting amnesty for traffic and non-traffic tickets

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday October 06, 2015 · 2:47 PM PDT

2015/10/06 · 14:47

Starting this month, California will be granting one-time amnesty for unpaid traffic and non- traffic infraction tickets. The program will go until March 31, 2017 and offers real financial relief to many people who need it. It also promises to potentially reinstate many suspended driver's licenses:

Persons with unpaid tickets whose fines were originally due to be paid date on or before January 1, 2013, who have not made a payment after September 30, 2015, may be eligible to have both their debt reduced by 50 or 80 percent depending on income and their driver's license reinstated, unless an exclusion discussed below applies.

Persons who made a payment after September 30, 2015 on a ticket are not eligible for a reduction for that ticket, but may be eligible to have their driver’s license reinstated if they are in good standing on a payment plan with a comprehensive collection program.

Persons with more than one ticket may not be eligible for a reduction on an individual ticket if the eligibility criteria are not satisfied for the ticket. Please check with your court for additional information.

This amnesty has the potential for affecting many Californians' lives.

More than 4 million Californians have lost their driver’s licenses because they weren’t able to pay a ticket, according to a report by the Western Center on Law and Poverty.
With an array of state and local fees tacked onto fines, tickets for routine traffic infractions in some cases approach $500. Expenses mount for drivers who fall so far behind that their licenses are suspended.

The amnesty is not offered up for parking tickets (doh!), reckless driving or DUI-related tickets.

California is granting amnesty for traffic and non-traffic tickets

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