Starting July 1, 2021, in Illinois, licenses will no longer be suspended or revoked when a driver fails to pay traffic tickets or fines. Unfortunately, that does not mean you can ignore your tickets and hope they go away; there are still significant penalties in Illinois for failing to pay your traffic ticket in a timely manner. What exactly happens if you miss the deadline to pay for your ticket?
- Late Fees/Increased Fines
There is a 15-day grace period when paying for your ticket. However, once that has passed, late fees accrue daily. These late fees can add up quickly, especially if you fail to realize your grace period has ended. Traffic tickets can already carry their own fines, which may be hundreds of dollars depending on the offense. Late fees make it even more difficult to pay your fines.
- A Conviction Could Be Entered
If you fail to pay your fines or request a court date within the allotted time, a conviction may be entered. This adds points to your driving record, which can stay on your record for four to five years. Insurance companies notice traffic tickets and can increase your insurance rates. Typically, the more severe the traffic violation, the bigger the hit to your insurance. What is worse is that you could be stuck with those insurance increases for three to five years, with average ticketed drivers expecting an annual increase of at least $340 for three years for a ticket.
Driving points can also affect your employment, as some fields require a clean driving record to begin or maintain work. It’s important to be mindful of whether your field has those requirements when deciding whether to pay or ignore a traffic ticket fine.
Further, Illinois, along with most states, uses the Problem Driver Point System (PDPS). PDPS is a database for driver information that is nation-wide. This means that tickets you receive in Illinois don’t stay in Illinois; if you don’t live in Illinois, these tickets can still be discovered by your home state.
To avoid these hefty penalties, set reminders to help you remember to pay for your traffic tickets, consider requesting payment extensions from the court if you are unable to pay, or dispute the ticket in court. If you have a pending traffic ticket, the Attorneys at Finegan Rinker & Ghrist have defended thousands of traffic cases in Central Illinois and would be happy to discuss your case with you for free.
Source 2: https://www.thezebra.com/resources/research/traffic-tickets-raise-insurance-rates/
