Clocked doing 72 in a 55 mile-per-hour zone? While it may not relieve the feeling of your wallet being $200 lighter, improvements made by Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin will make it more convenient to pay the fine.
“You can now pay fines, court costs and traffic tickets online without having to come to the courthouse,” Martin revealed of the just-launched alternative to visiting the clerk’s office. The option is open to cases in all the major courts including circuit, general sessions and juvenile.
To exercise the online option, go to www.courtfeepay.com and click the “Make a Payment” link. Then select Tennessee and DeKalb County Circuit Court Clerk. You will then select the court your case is in, for example, a speeding ticket would be in general sessions court unless you are under 18, meaning that would be paid in juvenile court. You then fill out the information requested.
“If you have any questions you can call us here at the circuit clerk’s office,” Martin noted, noting it is important to remember to have things like case numbers or citations numbers nearby as you will be asked to input those. “The citation number is right on your ticket and, for things like circuit court, the case number is usually begun by the year, then CR and then a series of numbers. In the case of tickets, it will also ask for your tag number.”
Martin said it is also helpful to know what judge is over the court your case is in. In DeKalb, Bratten Cook II is general sessions judge. Circuit judges are Amy Hollars and Jonathan Young and criminal court judges are Gary McKenzie and David Patterson.
Martin said transition to online payments was not difficult since they were already using software that lended itself to the online payment option.
“I think people are really going to like this,” she said, adding she is next setting her sights on putting dockets online so they are searchable by the public from the comfort of home. She would also like to have a similar site where jurors can log on and see the status of their cases. There are also plans in the works to have auto-text messages sent to jurors to update the status of their cases.