Posted: Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Recipients of tickets issued by the State Patrol, the Department of Natural Resources, or local law enforcement anywhere in Minnesota can now pay their fines via an automated phone system or online using a credit card 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service is only available for citations that do not require a court appearance, which are referred to as “payable citations.”

Payments can be made by calling 651-281-3219 in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, or toll-free at 1-800-657-3611.  Payment can also be made through the Judicial Branch Website.  Payments may still be made at the courthouse in the county where the ticket was issued, or by mail.

In addition to making it more convenient for the public to pay fines, the project, which began  rolling out a year ago, is part of a Judicial Branch effort to use technology and work process changes to reduce manual data entry and free up as many as 50 court employees statewide to work on other case processing duties. The new system is estimated to eventually save the Judicial Branch up to $2.7 million annually.

“Centralizing and automating the processing of these payable citations will cut costs, improve service and increase revenue for state and local government,” said State Court Administrator Sue K. Dosal. “It’s just one of several ways we are using technology to increase our efficiency.”

Under the project, the processing of 1.1 million payable citations and tickets issued each year is being transferred from 87 local courthouses to a centralized Court Payment Center. The project includes a toll-free call service that can answer questions and direct callers to the appropriate location if a court appearance or other action is required.

The Minnesota Court Payment Center project includes electronic filing of traffic citations by many law enforcement agencies directly from squad cars into the court case information system. It also includes automated distribution of fine revenues collected to local governments and the state, and automated referral of past due fines to the Minnesota Department of Revenue for collection.