|
|
Last Modified on Jan 16, 2026
If you have driven for any appreciable amount of time, chances are that you are familiar with the fleeting flash of anxiety that can accompany the sight of flashing lights in your rearview mirror. Indeed, you immediately start going through a sort of mental instant replay to try to determine what you possibly could have done wrong over the last several miles.
Often all this anxiety proves to be unnecessary, as the squad car ultimately goes around you, targeting another driver or simply driving out of sight. Still, there are those times when you just aren’t that lucky and you know a traffic citation is in your future.
Traffic violations — an overview
There are two types of citations that can be issued for traffic violations here in Maryland:
- Payable traffic violations: Issued for routine traffic violations such as speeding, improper lane changes, running a red light, etc.
- Must appear violations: Issued for more serious traffic violations such as driving under the influence of either alcohol or drugs, driving on a suspended license, etc.
In this series of posts, we will address standard payable traffic violations, which are issued by a law enforcement officer in either a handwritten or electronic version. In the former, you will be provided with two copies of the ticket while in the latter, you will be provided with just one printed copy.
You will be able to tell whether it’s a payable violation as opposed to a must appear violation on handwritten traffic violations when the second box located under the “Notice to Appear” section is checked, and on electronic violations when the “Payable fine” box is checked.
While no jail time will result from payable traffic violations, they are, of course, punishable by a fine and can even become a part of your driving record.
In our next post, we’ll discuss the three options available to those drivers issued a payable traffic citation.
Last week, we started discussing how anxiety provoking it can be to see flashing lights in your rearview mirrors and know that you’re being pulled over for some sort of traffic violation.
Specifically, we started discussing the most common citation issued by law enforcement officials — payable traffic violations — which, as the name implies, are punishable by a fine and can affect your driving record. In today’s post, we’ll begin to discuss the three options drivers have concerning these payable traffic violations.
Option 1 — pleading “guilty” and paying the fine
Many people opt to pay the fine called for by the payable traffic violation. For some, this might be because they know there is no disputing that they were speeding, while for others, it may be because they don’t want to bother or feel that they wouldn’t know how to challenge the assertion by the issuing officer that they had run a red light.
People who fall into this latter category should be aware that by electing to simply pay the fine, they will essentially be entering a guilty plea and that this will go on their permanent driving record.
While this may not seem like cause for concern, consider that a guilty plea allows the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration to potentially assess points against your license. This accumulation of points, in turn, may serve to drive your insurance premiums up.
Those who decide to go this route should know that they have three payment options: online, by mail or at the nearest district court.
We’ll continue to discuss the other options available to drivers issued payable traffic citations, including pleading “guilty with an explanation” and requesting a trial, in future posts.
