Traffic offenders can now pay tickets online

Drivers who receive traffic citations in North Carolina are saving time by paying citation fees and related costs online at http://www.payNCticket.org, rather than going to the courthouse to pay.

A relatively new system, payNCticket, accepts payments for traffic and other offenses that will not be contested in a court of law. Payment methods accepted are credit and debit cards.

“Our new payNCticket online payment system has become the preferred method of payment for waivable traffic offenses,” Clerk of Superior Court Diane Cornett Deal said. “Citizens conveniently may make their payment from anywhere Internet connectivity is available. I encourage citizens not wanting to appear in court regarding their traffic citation to save gas and time and go online to pay.”

The payNCticket system was built by the judicial branch’s N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) to provide benefits to both citizens and court officials and staff. In addition to providing a more convenient payment option for citizens, payNCticket allows for quicker disposition of cases because of its automatic updates of case records.

“The notion of payNCticket was born out of need to reduce processing and transactional work that requires a great deal of time for clerks of court,” said Mecklenburg County Clerk of Superior Court Martha Curran, who seeded the idea of such a system. “Building a system to specifically address the workload for traffic citations makes great business sense, as this is one of the highest volume work areas for courts statewide.”

Statewide, the payNCticket program has reportedly saved citizens hundreds of thousands of hours, and it has saved courthouse staff more than 7,600 hours by eliminating the need to manually take receipts. Nearly 56 percent of waived offenses are paid using payNCticket.

In 2012, more than 123,000 waived offenses across the state were processed via the online system. Watauga County received 976 payments for waived offenses in 2012 via payNCticket. Prior to payNCticket, Watauga County citizens had to pay fines and related court costs by going to the courthouse to pay in cash or by mailing a money order or cashier’s check payment.

“The payNCticket system demonstrates how technology is modernizing the way citizens interact with courts statewide,” NCAOC director John W. Smith said. “The system also improves efficiency to clerks of court by streamlining the payment and waiver process.”

Most monies received from traffic citations do not stay with the courts, but instead go to local government agencies and the state’s general fund. For more information, visit http://www.nccourts.org, or contact Sharon Gladwell, NCAOC communications director, at (919) 890-1394 or (sharon.e.gladwell@nccourts.org)