What’s the procedure to fight your traffic ticket in New Orleans Traffic Court?

I would like to discuss the procedure to resolve a traffic ticket in New Orleans on your own. First, at the bottom of your ticket, you will find a court date.

The court date listed is not necessarily when you have to come in to handle the ticket. It’s basically an appear by date. Once that ticket hit the system, you can come in to clerk’s office and get the ticket set in the division.

If your New Orleans traffic ticket starts with a J or T, it will likely hit the system pretty early on within a week or two. If it’s just a series of numbers, then, it’s most likely a state ticket and those can take up to four to six weeks to pop up.

So, how do you know if the ticket is in the system? You can check by going to traffic.nola.gov and putting in your ticket number or you can call the clerk’s office at (504) 658-8500. If they can’t find it, it means the traffic ticket is not in the system yet.

Once the ticket in the system, you can go to the clerk’s office and set it. Setting the ticket means having the ticket assigned a division and a court date.

The ticket can be assigned to any of the seven divisions in New Orleans Traffic and Municipal court. Court is held at 9:00 AM, 2:00 PM, or 3:00 PM depending on the division.

The second court date will provide you with the opportunity to talk to the city attorney about your case. While the goal is always to get a dismissal, if that’s not possible, you want to focus on making sure that ticket is reduced to a non-moving violation.

Moving violations that can have a negative impact on your driving record and, most importantly, on your insurance. A moving violation can end up costing you hundreds if not thousands of dollars due to the high cost of insurance in Louisiana.

If you talk to the city attorney and are able to agree on the charge(s), you will talk to the judge who will set the fine. At that point, you can either pay the ticket that day or set up a payment plan if you prefer.

If for whatever reason you and the city attorney are not able to come to an agreement, you will have to go to trial on the matter and the judge will decide the outcome. Most likely, they will issue you another court date to handle the trial.

If you have any questions about your New Orleans traffic ticket, I’d be happy to help. You can always shoot me a quick text or you can go to trafficticketsnola.com and schedule a free strategy session to discuss your situation.