Do You Have to Pay Traffic Camera Tickets in Ohio? CLE Explained

Traffic camera tickets are still common across Northeast Ohio — from Newburgh Heights to Linndale. But since they’re civil violations, not criminal ones, many drivers wonder: Do you actually have to pay them?

In this week's episode of CLExplained, our new video series helping you navigate the latest news and issues affecting Northeast Ohio, Sound of Ideas host Stephanie Haney recently asked that exact question after receiving a traffic camera ticket in the mail.

If you’ve driven through, let’s say, Gates Mills or Linndale lately, and maybe you were in a little bit of a hurry, you might have gotten a speeding ticket, even though you never talked to or even saw a police officer.

That’s because traffic camera tickets are very much still a thing in Northeast Ohio. But the question is: Do you have to pay them?

I’m Stephanie Haney, and this is CLE Explained.

And THIS is the traffic camera ticket that I recently got, which rudely showed up in the mail a few weeks after I had made a rush trip down to Canton to attend my little brother’s Halloween trick-or-treating hang.

Yes, I was running late, and yes, I was going 74 in a 60, which I would argue was very much with the flow of traffic. But apparently the cop using a traffic camera who I passed on I-77 in Newburgh Heights didn’t care about that.

So I got this fine notice in the mail telling me I owed a penalty of $195. It also said, “This is a civil traffic camera ticket.” Translation: Not a crime. Just a fine.

Traffic camera tickets are different from tickets you get issued by an officer who actually pulls you over. In that case, the officer is writing you a ticket under state or local traffic code, and it’s a moving violation.

That kind of in-person ticket gets filed with a court right away and gets reported to the BMV, so it adds points to your license. That means it could affect the cost of your car insurance and could lead to other issues like a suspended license, depending on whether you’ve got points adding up.

Traffic camera tickets, on the other hand, don’t result in points on your license because they’re not reported to the BMV.

So does that mean you can just ignore them?

Here’s what won’t happen if you make that choice. You won’t be arrested for not paying a traffic camera ticket. And you most likely won’t be dragged into court because most of these tickets aren’t automatically filed with a civil court. Some of them are, though, like in Willoughby Hills and Garfield Heights, for example.

For what it’s worth, Ohio lawmakers hate traffic camera tickets. They consider them to be civil infractions, which is the same category of fine you might get for something like not cutting your grass for six months and letting it become an eyesore for your neighbors.

Under Ohio law, the places that use traffic cameras to issue tickets have to report the money they get from those fines to the state, and it decreases state funding they would otherwise get, except when it comes to traffic cameras used in school zones.

So why would areas use these? Simple. Some places earn more from the camera tickets than they would get in funding from the state, so the offset doesn’t matter to them.

Like Newburgh Heights, for example, where my ticket came from, which makes the most money in the state when it comes to traffic camera fines, to the tune of more than $4 million in one year.

So do you HAVE to pay your traffic camera ticket fine?

Here’s what could happen if you don’t. The most likely scenario is a collections agency bothering you for a while. The worst-case scenarios include civil judgments, a negative hit on your credit report if your fine is sent to collections and you don’t pay it then, liens and vehicle registration holds in some jurisdictions, and increased penalties if you try to fight the fine and lose.

If you’re really lucky, nothing happens and you get to go on with your life. But that’s kind of a big gamble to take.

So it’s best to just pay the fine and be done with it.

And if you’re wondering what I would do, I did pay the fine. Begrudgingly, but I did pay it.

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