How to read your Florida Uniform Traffic Citation and work with your clerk.
A Florida traffic ticket is a form called the Florida Uniform Traffic Citation. It names the county and the clerk who own your case. Traffic schools teach the course — your county’s Clerk of Court runs everything else. The citation response. The traffic school election and its 30-day window. The fees, your completion deadline, and the final say on eligibility. Florida has 67 counties and 67 clerk’s offices, and the one on your citation owns your case. This guide is how to deal with it without a wasted trip.
- Two deadlines: 30 days to elect, then the county’s completion date.
- When the clerk and a website disagree, believe the clerk — ours included.
The clerk’s contact info is printed on your citation
The county on the ticket — not where you live — owns the case
Reading your Florida Uniform Traffic Citation: the five things that decide what happens next
Everything the clerk needs from you, and everything you need from the clerk, starts on this one page. Here is the same document with its fields labeled — blank, because yours is the only one that matters.
The five things on it that decide what you do next
- The county on the ticket owns your case Not the county you live in. Florida has 67 clerk's offices, each with its own website and its own citation-response options, and yours is the one printed here.
- That is the office you elect with The clerk's contact details are on the citation. When the clerk's instruction and any website disagree — this page included — the clerk is right.
- The statute charged is what eligibility turns on Traffic school election covers most non-criminal moving violations. That means a civil ticket, not a criminal charge. The four standard checks predict the answer. The clerk's records decide it.
- Civil or criminal changes the path The election exists for non-criminal infractions. A criminal traffic charge is a different conversation, and not one a course settles.
- The citation date starts the 30 days You have 30 days from this date to tell the clerk you are electing traffic school. It is the deadline drivers miss most.
What a Florida Clerk of Court decides about your traffic ticket
| The job | Your county clerk | FLHSMV | Highway Traffic School | You |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your citation response | Takes it — online, by mail, or at the counter | — | — | Choose: pay, contest, or elect traffic school |
| The election, and its 30 days | Records it and decides eligibility | — | — | Tell the clerk within 30 days of the citation |
| The money | Sets the election fee, applies the reduction state law sets, collects the money | — | Charges only for the course | Pay the civil penalty and the election fee |
| Your completion deadline | Sets it, county by county, on your paperwork | — | — | Finish the course before that date |
| Confirming you are done | Sees the case marked complete | Passes the completion to the court | Files your completion, usually the moment you finish | Keep your certificate |
Every one of Florida's 67 counties runs its own clerk's office. Find yours — name, courthouse address and phone — in the clerks' own directory: Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers.
How do I look up or pay my Florida traffic citation?
Through the Clerk of Court in the county where you got the ticket. Florida has no single office for it. Most clerks have a ticket search on their own site, by citation number or by name. Find your county’s clerk. FLHSMV also names payflclerk.com for paying a fine online in any of the 67 counties (FLHSMV, traffic citations).
Want traffic school? Say so when you respond. A plain payment is not an election. You have 30 days from the citation date to elect with the clerk listed on it. How to elect traffic school, step by step. Cited for a handheld phone in a school or work zone? That citation takes the WCD course instead of BDI.
30 days to elect. Then the county’s completion date.
The first date is Florida’s. The second is your county’s, and only the clerk knows it. It’s printed on your election paperwork.
Clerks, Answered
Clerk of Court FAQ
What is a Florida Uniform Traffic Citation?
It is the official name of a Florida traffic ticket. State law has every traffic enforcement agency use the same form (F.S. 316.650). It shows the county, the Clerk of Court for your case, the statute you are charged under, and the citation date. Those four things decide what you can do next.
What does the Clerk of Court have to do with my traffic ticket?
Nearly everything that isn't the course itself. Your county's Clerk of Court is where you respond to the citation. It's where you elect traffic school, within 30 days. It's where you pay the civil penalty and election fee. The clerk sets your course completion deadline. And the clerk has the final say on your eligibility. Traffic schools teach the course; the clerk runs your case.
How do I find my Clerk of Court?
Start with the citation. The issuing county and the clerk's contact information are printed on it. The county on the ticket owns your case — not the county you live in. Each of Florida's 67 counties runs its own clerk's office, with its own website and its own citation-response options.
How do I look up my Florida traffic citation?
Go to the website of the Clerk of Court in the county where you got the ticket. Most clerks let you search by citation number or by name. Florida has no single statewide office for it.
Can I handle everything with the clerk online?
In many counties, much of it. Citation payment and the traffic school election are often available online. But procedures genuinely differ across the 67 counties. So the citation and your clerk's own website are the instructions that count. When the website and a phone call disagree, believe the clerk's office.
What will the clerk charge me?
The civil penalty for the violation, plus any election fee your county sets when you choose traffic school. Both go to the court. The counterweight: electing an approved course may reduce your civil penalty by up to 18%. State law sets that cut (F.S. 318.14(9)), and your clerk applies it. None of that money passes through any traffic school.
Does the clerk decide if I'm eligible for traffic school?
Yes — the clerk always has the final say. Florida's four standard checks predict the answer, and our eligibility guide walks through them. But the clerk's records decide it. If anything about your case is unusual, one call to the clerk beats any website's guess — including ours.
What deadline should I actually be watching?
Two, in sequence. First: 30 days from the citation to tell the clerk you're electing. Second: the completion deadline your county sets on your election paperwork. The first is the one drivers miss. Up against either? Call the clerk before it passes — flexibility, where it exists, lives there.
The clerk said something different from this page. Who's right?
The clerk. This page describes how Florida's system works in general, built from FLHSMV-level rules. But your case lives in one specific county, and the clerk administers it. When your clerk gives you an instruction, follow it — whatever any website says.
Clerk handled? The course is the easy half.
Four self-paced hours, $24.95 all-inclusive — and for elected cases, your court hears about it without you lifting a finger. The BDI course page has the details, and the certificate guide covers who files what.