If you have received traffic ticket lately, look toward the end of it. You should see a date which is your traffic court date. In most jurisdictions and with most offenses, you can pay the fine before that date and never appear in court. However, if the offense is a serious moving offense such as reckless driving, you will have to attend traffic court. You will also want to attend court if you want to contest the charges. What happens if you miss your traffic court date? In some cases, you will receive a failure to appear citation. You may not be arrested, but you will be required to appear in court to have the citation removed. Some traffic court judges do issue bench warrants and you could be jailed for failure to appear on your court date. The best thing to do is to pay the fine before the court date or go to court to defend yourself.