No Court Fees in December for Traffic Violators

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Macon Municipal Court is giving traffic violators, a second chance to pay their traffic citations, and at a discount. The city court is offering traffic violators, amnesty.

However they only have the month of December to take advantage of the offer of waiving the “contempt of court” fine.

Macon’s Court Clerk John Pattan says the amnesty program is to encourage people who are overdue on fines to pay them. They will not have to pay the additional $140 fee for missing their court date.

“We have done an amnesty program before, back in September 2008, and at that time a good number of people came in and paid,” said Pattan.

For example if someone has a speeding fine, but missed their court date, a failure to appear notation is automatically placed on their driving record. A court fee of $140 is also added.

However in December if the offender pays the ticket, the court fee is waived. They will also receive a letter for the Georgia Department of Driver’s Services in case that “failure to appear” citation has caused their license to be suspended.

“We recognize that people miss court dates for many reasons, some perfectly excusable, and this will save them the aggravation of going through the process of setting another date and trying to save enough money for the additional fine,” says Judge Robert Faulkner. “It also provides a way for the Court to collect fines that may not have been paid for many months as people saved their money and went through the court process.”