Logan County Circuit Court clerk announces new online payment option for traffic citations

[August 03, 2009]  Three counties in Illinois have offered traffic violators the option to pay a traffic citation online with a credit card. Now the Logan County Circuit Court clerk has joined Cook, DuPage and St. Clair counties in providing the ability for the public to make credit card payments via the Internet.

Circuit Court Clerk Carla Bender has been working with the Supreme Court and private vendors in developing the technology to provide this convenience to those who have traffic citations or other pending cases in Logan County. Bender said that the new system was operational as of June 10.

"If you have a non-must appear (minor) traffic violation and wish to plead guilty and pay your traffic ticket online with a credit card, you can go to our page on the county Web site, locate your case by means of specific identifiers and take care of your citation in a few moments at your computer," Bender said.

The circuit clerk believes that this option will streamline and expedite the processing of traffic citations by the court system while making compliance more convenient for drivers who have pending traffic violations.

The circuit clerk wants the public to know that citations that require a court appearance cannot be handled by the online process. Drivers who wish to ask the court for court supervision must appear in court. They cannot plead and receive a disposition of court supervision online. In addition, if the traffic citation is marked "must appear" by the officer, the system will not allow the traffic violator to use the automated process. Those violators must appear in court, just as those individuals who wish to request court supervision on their traffic violation must do.

Another component to the online process provides an option for partial payments. If a person has previously appeared in court and owes a balance, the individual can access the electronic payment system to make a payment to the court. Rather than mailing the payment to the circuit court clerk or making a trip to the courthouse, payments can be made online with a credit card through this simple credit card payment process.

To use this feature for payment of a traffic citation, visit www.logan.il.us and go to the circuit clerk's page. Below is a glimpse of how the process works.

Step 1

User locates their traffic ticket or case with outstanding balance.

Step 2

User confirms their identity.

Step 3

User pleads guilty and pays traffic citation online with a credit card or makes a partial payment toward an outstanding balance.

Step 4

The disposition and payment are recorded in the Judicial Information Management software system data and reflected on Judici case pages.

Step 5

Payments are electronically reconciled with funds deposited. All transactions are tracked and recorded in the database.

(See sample.)

[Text from file received from the Logan County circuit clerk]