Los Angeles County Traffic School

Los Angeles County runs from the beaches of Santa Monica and Long Beach over the San Gabriel Mountains to Palmdale and Lancaster, and the Census Bureau puts its population at 9,694,934 on July 1, 2025. Interstate 5 runs past Santa Clarita and downtown Los Angeles, Interstate 10 runs east from Santa Monica to Pomona, and Interstate 405 climbs the Sepulveda Pass into the South Bay. Interstates 210 and 605 serve the foothills and the San Gabriel Valley, US 101 crosses the San Fernando Valley, and State Route 14 climbs to the Antelope Valley.

The California Office of Traffic Safety counted 58,758 people killed or injured in Los Angeles County crashes in 2023. OTS ranks counties by weighing crash counts together with population and miles driven, and number 1 is the worst result. On that measure the county placed 58th of 58, the opposite end of the scale. Older pedestrians are the exception, with 562 people aged 65 or older killed or injured on foot, 9th in the state. Speed-related crashes that killed or hurt someone numbered 12,319.

Los Angeles County Superior Court calls itself the largest trial court in the nation, with 36 courthouses serving 88 cities, 140 unincorporated areas and 88 law enforcement agencies. Each of those agencies, from city police to CHP Areas such as Newhall and South Los Angeles, sends its tickets to this same court. The court's traffic pages count 16 traffic locations and more than a million new citations a year. The front of your ticket lists the place to appear and a court phone number, and the court tells drivers to contact the courthouse on the ticket for help.

The DMV's list of court codes gives the whole county a single code, 19463, filed under the Metropolitan Courthouse name. It is the code for reporting a completion and does not mean your case is heard in that building. This site has city pages for two of the 88 cities, Gardena and Torrance, but the court and the rules below apply to a ticket from any of them.

Courtrooms can also move. In June 2023 the court announced that, from July 31, 2023, the Inglewood Courthouse would hear the traffic arraignments and trials for citations assigned to the Torrance Courthouse, while the Torrance traffic clerk's office stayed open for other services. It said drivers with an affected hearing would get a notice, so read anything the court mails you.

When the court allows traffic school, its traffic school page lists the ways to ask for it, including at your arraignment. You pay the bail plus a traffic school processing fee the court does not refund, and the notice shows the traffic school amount. The due date stands even if the notice never arrives. Parking tickets never reach the court, because the city that wrote them or the Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau handles them.