Riverside County Traffic Records

The Riverside County Superior Court handles all traffic citations issued within county lines. You can search your case online through the court portal. Pay your fine, request traffic school, or set up a payment plan without going to the courthouse. Night court is available twice a month from five to seven in the evening for people who work days. The court offers a sixty day extension from your appear date if you need more time to respond to your traffic ticket in Riverside County California.

Traffic Court Operations

Riverside County processes traffic cases at multiple courthouse locations throughout the county. The Payment Processing Center sits in Corona at 505 South Buena Vista in Room 201. Most mail goes to that address. Phone lines open during business hours at 951-222-0384. You can call to check your case status or ask basic questions. The staff cannot give legal advice but they can tell you about court processes and fees in California.

When you get a ticket in Riverside County, wait a few weeks before calling. The officer must turn in the citation. The court then enters it into the system. This takes time. If you call too soon, your case will not show up yet. Most tickets appear online within three to four weeks of the issue date. Your courtesy notice comes by mail around that same time. It lists your bail amount and options. The appear by date on your ticket is when you must respond. Do not wait for the courtesy notice if your deadline is coming up soon.

Extensions give you more time to take action. Riverside County allows one sixty day extension from your appearance date. You must request it before the deadline passes. Once you miss the appear date, late penalties kick in. A civil assessment of up to three hundred dollars gets added. Your license may be suspended. The DMV places a hold on your record. You cannot renew registration until you clear the hold. Contact the court right away if you miss a deadline to discuss your options in Riverside County California.

Search Cases Online

The online portal for Riverside County Superior Court is at epublic-access.riverside.courts.ca.gov. This system lets you look up traffic cases by name or case number. You can view basic information about your case for free. Downloading documents costs extra. The court charges one dollar per page for the first five pages. Additional pages cost fifty cents each.

Name searches in Riverside County work differently than some other counties. The fee depends on how many searches you run. One name search costs one dollar. More searches cost more. The most you will pay is two hundred fifty dollars no matter how many names you look up. Most people only search their own name once, so the cost stays low. Once you find your case, you can bookmark the link to check back later without searching again.

Payment options include credit cards and electronic checks. The court adds a service fee for online payments. Check the website for current processing fees. Online payments post faster than mail payments. Your DMV hold gets released within one to two business days. Personal checks take longer to clear. Money orders and cashier checks process like cash. If you are in a hurry to clear a hold, use online payment or visit the courthouse with cash or a money order in California.

Traffic School Process

Traffic school in Riverside County costs fifty two dollars as an administrative fee paid to the court. You also pay the full bail amount. On top of that, the traffic school itself charges a fee. Most online schools charge between twenty and fifty dollars for the course. Your total cost is bail plus fifty two dollars plus the school fee. Many drivers find this worthwhile to keep their insurance rates from going up in California.

Eligibility rules apply. You cannot have attended traffic school for another ticket in the past eighteen months. The eighteen month period runs from violation date to violation date, not from the date you completed school. Some violations never qualify. Speeding more than twenty five miles per hour over the limit is not eligible. Any alcohol related offense disqualifies you. Reckless driving does not qualify. If you were driving a commercial vehicle at the time, you cannot use traffic school even if it was your personal time.

After requesting traffic school, you have time to complete the course. Most courts give you sixty to ninety days. Riverside County follows the standard time frame. Pick a school from the approved list on the DMV website. Online schools are most convenient. When done, the school sends your certificate to the court. The court reports it to the DMV as confidential. Your insurance company will not see it. But remember, if you get another ticket within eighteen months from the first violation date, you cannot use school again and the second ticket goes on your public record in Riverside County.

Fines, Fees, and Payment Plans

Traffic fines in Riverside County follow the statewide schedule. Base fines start low. Then penalty assessments pile on. Court construction fees, county fees, and state surcharges add up fast. A thirty five dollar base fine can turn into two hundred dollars or more by the time all fees are added. The courtesy notice shows your total bail amount. That is what you must pay if you choose to just pay the ticket without contesting it.

If you cannot pay the full amount at once, ask for a payment plan. The court looks at your income. They set monthly payments based on what you can afford. A setup fee may apply. You must make payments on time. Missing a payment can restart collection actions. Another option is community service. The court assigns a dollar value per hour of work. You volunteer at approved sites. The hours you work get credited against your fine at the rate set by the court in California.

Unpaid traffic fines go to collection agencies. Your license gets suspended. Registration renewal gets blocked. Collection fees get added on top of court fines. The best move is to contact the court before your deadline. Even if you cannot pay, the court has programs to help. The ability to pay tool at mycitations.courts.ca.gov works for anyone in California. It helps you request fine reductions if you receive public benefits or have low income. Riverside County participates in this statewide program.

Cities in Riverside County

Several large cities sit within Riverside County. All traffic tickets in these cities go through Riverside County Superior Court. No city court handles traffic matters. Select your city to learn more about local courthouse options:

Riverside | Corona

Nearby Counties for Traffic Court

If your citation was issued in a neighboring county, that county court handles your case. Riverside County does not process tickets from other jurisdictions. Check these nearby counties:

San Bernardino County | Orange County | San Diego County | Imperial County