How to Check CA Court Traffic School Status

Why It is so Important to Finish Traffic School on Time

The CA court connected to your traffic ticket will keep your case open until the court due date, or if you opted to take traffic school, until the traffic school due date. Once this date passes, the court will close your case. If you completed your course on time, the points from your ticket will not go on your driving record. But if you did NOT complete on time… the points will go on your record and your auto insurance may also go up.

In some instances, there will be a hold placed on the person’s driving record. It is even possible for a referral to be issued to Revenue Services for payment.

Many Californians are under the impression that a “physical” proof of completion certificate must be submitted to the court. Although that is true for Florida, Texas and various other states, it is not the case for California… except for out-of-state violators! If you were just driving through CA or do not have a CA driver’s license, and received a ticket, you will have to submit a physical proof of completion certificate to your court.

How Traffic School Certificates are Transmitted and Processed

California classroom and online traffic school completion certificates are transmitted in an electronic manner. Once you complete the course the date and time is recorded and immediately sent to the CA DMV via the internet. This information travels from the DMV database to the individual’s traffic court’s database within 24 hours.

The message contains a read-only file that details the participant’s information, the traffic course completed, the date of completion and other helpful information.

Once the traffic school certificate is received by the court, it will be marked as received and your dismissal will be electronically processed. Particularly large CA courts will take upwards of multiple days or even multiple weeks to process your completion paperwork. However, the time frame for processing hinges on each unique court.

Check on the Web

Do not assume the CA court has received your traffic school certificate. It is best to check with the court just to make sure the electronic report was sent to the correct court. Head on over to this helpful website: http://courtcertservice.com/ to check on the status of your case. Select the county where you were cited for the traffic infraction. Enter the information about your traffic violation court case including your first and last name, date of birth, driver’s license number and case number. Click the “check status” option.

When in doubt, do not hesitate to pick up the phone and give the court a call. Reach out to the court in question and tell them you would like to check the status of your traffic violation. Provide the court clerk with your information and ask whether the traffic school certificate has been received. If it has been received, find out the date the court received it and write it down for your records.