What If You Don't Pay Your Red Light Camera Ticket?

What Happens If You Don’t Pay Your Red Light Camera Ticket?

Pursuant to a recent LA Times article about camera tickets, word has gotten around that LA courts don’t report to the DMV if a person fails to respond to a Camera Ticket. Some people are saying what’s the point of fighting it then?  Are Traffic Cameras Legal In Los Angeles, California?

Well, if the registered owner fails to respond, the court will send a notice stating an additional $300 will be imposed if not paid within 10 days. After that the registered owner’s name is sent to collections. So although the DMV won’t be notified to suspend the driver’s license, a collections agency will be harassing them and could have a major negative impact on their credit score.

LA Superior Court may be one of the only counties, if not the only county, having this policy and it has this policy because in the court’s opinion, since the registered owner may not necessarily be the driver it is not fair to suspend the registered owner’s license without knowing they were the driver.

Keep in mind that the LA Times article is only specific to registered owners whose name appears on the ticket. So you will be taking a gamble if you are not the registered owner and your name was turned in by the registered owner and yet you still choose to ignore the ticket.

Also in choosing to ignore ticket and let collections come after them, all persons are taking a gamble that the traffic court doesn’t choose to change their policy at that time. It is a policy the court has elected to make, they were not mandated to do so, so really it could change at any time without notice.