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A statewide program throughout the first half of April may help you save money while paying traffic citations as you get back on the road legally.
ORANGE PARK, Fla. — If you have any traffic citation that’s been on your to-do list to pay, now until April 11 may be the best time to pay it, especially for those who have already missed their due date.
Counties in Northeast Florida are working together to help those pay off their overdue traffic citations by rolling out ‘Operation Green Light.’ It’s a way that can save people money in the long run and get their driver’s license reinstated.
Several clerk of courts throughout Florida are looking to help people who missed paying their ticket after 30 days from when it was issued.
In the state of Florida, if you don’t pay your ticket after 30 days from when it was issued, your driver’s license will be suspended.
Tara Green, elected Clay County clerk of court and comptroller, told First Coast News that if someone is caught driving with a suspended license, it adds to an even longer list of fines.
“You’re going to get caught driving unknowingly with a suspended license,” she said. “It’s several hundred dollars. And so, not only do you have your traffic citation that you hadn’t paid, which resulted in the suspended license, now you have a citation for a suspended license, so now you’ve got two situations that you have to deal with.”
Operation Green Light can save people up to 25% on collection fees that add up during the course of the two-week-long event.
“It allows us to pull that back from the collection agency and put you on a payment plan or go ahead and pay in full, making you eligible for your reinstatement,” Green said.
Green explained how last year, nearly 300 people were arrested by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office because they were unaware that their license was suspended.
“If you have a suspended license and you’re pulled over, you could get arrested,” Green said. “You probably will still spend the night in jail. So, it does help to reduce the amount of people driving on a suspended license. It would be helpful to my office and to the courts.”
During last year’s Operation Green Light program, Clay County was able to help over 300 people drive legally again.
This year, Operation Green Light kicked off in every Northeast Florida county.
