Sonoma County

Traffic court information

Traffic Court Website

Traffic Ticket Lookup

Traffic Court Phone Number: (707) 521-6680

Financial Hardship? For the initial hearing you have a minimum of 60 days to come in to walk-in court (which is held daily). At that hearing you can request community service or raise ability to pay concerns. If you don’t appear, there will be a trial in absentia and the judge can find you guilty and impose a fine.

You can then go to court and ask for community service or submit an Ability to Pay form to the clerks. You can get the form in person or call the clerk’s office and they will mail or fax it to you. If the judge has questions about your request they will set a hearing, otherwise they will issue a written decision that will be mailed to you. If you just want to modify your payment plan, you can write a letter to the judge who will issue a written response.

You can still submit the Ability to Pay form if your ticket is in collections, but if you have a Failure to Appear you will need to come to court and then you can submit the form.

There is no form to request to vacate a civil assessment fee but you can write a letter to the judge explaining why you failed to appear or pay and the judge will issue a written response.

Driver’s License Hold/Suspension for Failure to Appear? Appear in court to get the hold removed. Call the clerks to get on the judge’s calendar. If your ticket is in collections they will place you on the calendar on a Thursday (that is when collections cases are heard). If you schedule a hearing and you appear, the license hold is released. They will also release the hold if you don’t appear but you pay the fine in full.

Criminal records remedies

Sonoma County Public Defender’s Office

• Address: 600 Administration Drive, Room 111J, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
• Phone: (707) 565-2791