Are There Court Fees For Fighting A Traffic Ticket?
When fighting a traffic ticket, you will encounter several types of costs. Court costs are part of the expenses involved. These include basic fines and additional charges like the victim fine surcharge (VFS).
Costs Breakdown
- Fines under $1,000:
- Set fines: Specific amounts depending on the offence.
- Victim Fine Surcharge (VFS): Additional amount based on the size of the fine.
- Fines over $1,000:
- Percentage-based VFS: A higher added cost calculated as a percentage of the fine.
Common Expenses
- Basic fine: The standard amount for the traffic violation.
- Victim Fine Surcharge: An extra charge added to your fine.
- Court fees: Small additional costs you pay at the end of your court process.
Video Transcription:
Are there court fees for fighting a traffic ticket? The answer is yes. However, I would like to expand upon that yes in this way. There are court costs and there are other costs that I call a victim fine surcharge or VFS. The VFS is a fund that is collected at the time of these tickets, at the time of conviction, and it’s over and above the fine.
So you’ll see two different numbers on the average ticket. One is specifically the fine, and the other is the cost with the victim fine surcharge added. So for the purpose of this video, I’m going to include that in what I call court costs, alright? But I’ll try to keep them distinguished so we know exactly what we’re talking about.
So, the victim fine surcharge on tickets that are under $1,000, there’s a tier of set fines, multiple fines that will be added on depending on the size of the fine. All being under
$1,000. If the fine is greater than $1,000, what the government will do is they’ll simply take a percentage. So they’ll add a percentage to that particular fine, and you will pay a significantly larger fee or fine in that regard.
If we were focused specifically on a traffic ticket below $1,000, Average sort of ticket, you will find, you will have a fine, you will have a set victim fine surcharge on there and then the very last court cost that you will see is as you are sort of exiting and there’s usually a negligible five or ten dollar cost.
