How to get court supervision after a minor traffic ticket in at least a north Illinois county.

In short, GO TO THE COURT DATE ASSIGNED even if not required, at least in my county if u dont pay your ticket by the day before court they add you to the docket as assigned and already have an offer prepared when you're called to the bench.

MY STORY: I live in North Central Illinois. A little over 5 maybe 6 years ago I got a traffic ticket for speeding and when I asked about court supervision the police told me I can't tell you how I dont know read the ticket later it'll tell you everything you need to know'...it did not see anything clearly. I suppose if someone were to prove to me that it's there I could have missed it as the font is like size 2 but idts. anyways I called the county clerk's office who told me to come in and pay the ticket at the counter and they would assign me supervision. I fell for it and bam on my record for 5 years.

Fast forward to this past year, my child got in a fairly minor at fault accident. With them being a new driver could u imagine the increase on my insurance premiums without court supervision and a class? I had to figure this out.

Again this slew of officers were no help at all.

How is it that police, who I am under the impression, are summoned to go to traffic court frequently, do not know that you simply dont pay and show up to to the nonrequired court appearance scheduled.

One day of sitting in traffic court with my child gave me all of this information. I feel the police I interacted with could have made it much less stressful by sharing information instead of seemingly hoping we will just pay the ticket as is and plead guilty. I am open to insight. If you are an officer past or present, or even in the academy. I would be interested to know how your instructed to handle situation when a driver receives a ticket and asks how to request supervision. If you could share your state too for perspective.

Our experience with traffic court Illinois:

We walked in about a half hour early, by direction of courthouse staff outside the room they advised we could come and go from the courtroom as we needed unless the door has a specific message on it.

While walking in I assessed the courtroom and saw one bailiff in a conversation with someone waiting and the judge was in session on the other side of a short barrier to the front half of the courtroom. We sat down and as the bailiff walked by I quietly asked if we needed to let him know we're there first before sitting down? He advised he would be around to check people in for our timeslot soon. When he came around we also asked if I could go up when it was time and he said either way, alone of with parent when underage is fine.

As each person went, the 5 or so people staged to be next would rotate seats closer to the podium in front of the Judge.

*One thing I did admire about the court process was the interpretation method they used. They had an interpreter with a microphone near the podium, they spoke softly into that mic which relayed to a set od headphones the defendant would have on to receive the information being given. *

My child being barely 17 had me go up to the bench as well when it was their turn. I just waited in the back pews and was able to come right up the middle to be with them. The judge verified who each of us was and as I remember he just asked the state representative if they had an offer. They presented the offer and they asked us if she accepted it and in her case it was 6 months of supervision, pay like $500 in fines, court fees and the class cost (VERY EXPENSIVE IN PERSON LOCAL COLLEGE COURSE). after the judge made his ruling we made our way out to the secretary right outside the room that would take any payments that we wanted to make right then and she also gave us the necessary paperwork to sign up for the course. She said keep that bring it back when you pay off the rest of the ticket they'll help you fill it out and assign you a date. my kid went and paid off their ticket while I drove around outside because we didn't want to pay for parking anyways lol they simply took the payment and said that the college would send information on the course date assigned. it's been about a week since the total was paid and we haven't received anything yet.