A Kenosha County traffic ticket has two answers hiding in it, and the citation in your hand contains both:
- Which court. A municipal ordinance citation from a city or village officer goes to that municipality’s own municipal court. A state statute citation, which is what the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Kenosha County Sheriff usually write, goes to Kenosha County Circuit Court at 912 56th Street.
- What it costs. The base deposit is the same statewide. The surcharges stacked on top of it are not, and the gap between circuit and municipal court on an ordinary speeding ticket runs roughly $70 to $100.
We are Wisconsin Ticket Specialists, the traffic practice of Cafferty, Scheidegger & Johnson, S.C., working Kenosha County out of our office at 7001 30th Avenue in Kenosha since 1994. Call or text (262) 632-5000. What follows is the map: every court in this county, the 2026 numbers, and the three separate clocks a conviction starts.
Which court, and why it is not arbitrary
Wisconsin runs two parallel forfeiture systems, and which one you are in was decided the moment the officer chose what to write.
Municipal court. Wis. Stat. § 755.045(1) gives a municipal court “exclusive jurisdiction over an action in which a municipality seeks to impose forfeitures for violations of municipal ordinances of the municipality that operates the court.” Wis. Stat. § 66.0114(1)(a) confirms the split: an ordinance action is a civil action, and “[i]f the action is in municipal court, the procedures under ch. 800 apply.”
Circuit court. Traffic forfeiture actions for state traffic regulations run under Wis. Stat. §§ 345.20 to 345.53. Section 345.20(1)(b) defines a “traffic regulation” as a provision of chs. 194 or 341 to 349 carrying a forfeiture, or an ordinance enacted under § 349.06. Section 345.20(2)(a) routes those to circuit court procedure, while § 345.20(2)(b) sends municipal court trials to ch. 800 while keeping the citation, arrest, deposit and no-contest provisions of ch. 345 applicable in both.
If you want the shortcut rather than the citation chain: Wis. Stat. § 345.26(1)(a) tells you where the deposit goes, and the list includes both “the office of the municipal judge” and “the office of the clerk of court.” Whichever one is printed on your paperwork is your answer.
The nine courts of Kenosha County
Most drivers can name one. Eight municipalities in Kenosha County operate a municipal court, all in the Second Judicial District, which covers Kenosha, Racine and Walworth counties. The Wisconsin Court System’s three-year municipal caseload report for 2024, which is organised by county, lists the Kenosha County courts and what each of them handled:
| Court | Where it sits | 2024 filings |
|---|---|---|
| Kenosha Municipal Court | 625 52nd Street, Room 97, Kenosha | 10,116 |
| Pleasant Prairie Municipal Court | 9915 39th Avenue, Pleasant Prairie | 4,409 |
| Twin Lakes Municipal Court | 105 E. Main Street, Twin Lakes | 580 |
| Salem Lakes Municipal Court | P.O. Box 443, Salem, WI 53168 | 641 |
| Paddock Lake Municipal Court | Paddock Lake | 359 |
| Wheatland Municipal Court | New Munster | 247 |
| Somers Municipal Court | 7511 12th Street, Kenosha | not reported |
| Bristol Municipal Court | 19801 83rd Street, Bristol | not reported |
Addresses re-checked 2026-08-19. Kenosha Municipal Court is at 625 52nd Street, Room 97, Kenosha, WI 53140, confirmed by our own attorneys who appear there. Bristol’s is confirmed against the Village’s own court page, which gives the Bristol Municipal Building at 19801 83rd Street, Bristol, WI 53104. Paddock Lake and Wheatland are deliberately listed by municipality rather than street address, because neither has a reachable official website and the only directory that carries their addresses is the state’s April 2021 Interim Edition, which is stale enough that it names five superseded judges elsewhere in this county.
Add Kenosha County Circuit Court at the courthouse, 912 56th Street, Kenosha, and that is nine possible venues in one county.
Two entries in that report need reading carefully. The Somers and Bristol courts both show zero filings for 2024, but every row in the report carries the note that not all four quarters were reported, and both villages publish an operating municipal court with a sitting judge today. Zero in that column means the quarter returns did not come in, not that the court closed.
The Town of Randall no longer runs its own court. It did as recently as the state’s 2021 municipal court directory, at the town hall on Bassett Road. Today the Village of Twin Lakes states that its municipal court “handles cases relating to the Village of Twin Lakes and the Town of Randall ordinance and traffic violations,” the 2024 caseload report files Randall as a jurisdiction under the Twin Lakes court rather than as a court of its own, and the Town of Randall’s published roster of officials contains no judge and no court. If you hold a Randall citation, your court is Twin Lakes.
Kenosha County towns including Brighton and Paris operate no municipal court. A municipal court exists only where the municipality has created one: Wis. Stat. § 755.01(1) requires the city council, town board or village board to adopt an ordinance providing for the election of a judge and the operation of the court, and to notify the director of state courts. Where there is no municipal court, the forfeiture action goes to a court of record, which is circuit court.
A practice that appears weekly in one of those nine is not automatically fluent in the other eight. The prosecutors are different people, the plea practices differ, and so do the calendars.
What it actually costs in 2026
The deposit is not invented locally. Wis. Stat. § 345.26(2)(a) provides that “[t]he basic amount of the deposit for the alleged violation of a traffic regulation shall be determined in accordance with a deposit schedule which the judicial conference shall establish,” reviewed annually, and § 345.26(2)(b) adds that the deposit also includes “court costs, fees, and surcharges imposed under ch. 814.”
Here is the 2026 Revised Uniform State Traffic Deposit Schedule for speeding in excess of fixed limits, Wis. Stat. § 346.57(4)(d) to (h), as it applies in circuit court:
| Over the limit | Deposit | Penalty surcharge | Jail and crime lab | JIS and court support | Circuit court costs | Total | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 mph | $30.00 | $7.80 | $23.00 | $89.50 | $25.00 | $175.30 | 3 |
| 11 to 15 mph | $30.00 | $7.80 | $23.00 | $89.50 | $25.00 | $175.30 | 4 |
| 16 to 19 mph | $50.00 | $13.00 | $23.00 | $89.50 | $25.00 | $200.50 | 4 |
| 20 to 24 mph | $70.00 | $18.20 | $23.00 | $89.50 | $25.00 | $225.70 | 6 |
| 25 to 29 mph | $90.00 | $23.40 | $23.00 | $89.50 | $25.00 | $250.90 | 6 |
| 30 to 34 mph | $125.00 | $32.50 | $23.00 | $89.50 | $25.00 | $295.00 | 6 |
| 35 to 39 mph | $175.00 | $45.50 | $23.00 | $89.50 | $25.00 | $358.00 | 6 |
| 40 to 44 mph | $250.00 | $65.00 | $23.00 | $89.50 | $25.00 | $452.50 | 6 |
| 45 or more | $300.00 | $78.00 | $23.00 | $89.50 | $25.00 | $515.50 | 6 |
Speeding over the 65 mph expressway limit under § 346.57(4)(gm)1 starts higher: $50.00 deposit and a $200.50 total for 1 to 10 over. Work zones roughly double the deposit column, and the schedule notes that if a child is present in a zone posted with “school” warning signs, the deposit column is doubled.
Now the same ticket in municipal court. The schedule’s own abbreviation guide flags the difference: the justice information system and court support services surcharge is “not applicable in municipal court.” The municipal court bond table in the back of the same book builds its totals from “deposit, local court costs ($15 - $48), 26% PS, $10 JS, and $13 crime lab.”
Run a $30 deposit through both:
| Circuit court | Municipal court | |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit | $30.00 | $30.00 |
| Penalty surcharge, 26% | $7.80 | $7.80 |
| Jail and crime lab | $23.00 | $23.00 |
| JIS and court support | $89.50 | Not applicable |
| Court costs | $25.00 | $15.00 to $48.00, set locally |
| Total | $175.30 | $75.80 to $108.80 |
The demerit points are identical. The offense is identical. The court is what moved the number, and nobody at the roadside explains that.
One more line in that municipal table matters here: “For OWI and reckless driving cases add $610.00 driver improvement surcharge and safe ride surcharge to total bond.” Impaired driving is a different financial universe, and a different practice. It is handled at racineowi.com, not here.
The points are the part that lasts
The fine is one payment. The points are a running total, and they are set by rule rather than by the court. Wis. Admin. Code Trans 101.02 assigns them:
| Violation | Points | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Speeding 1 to 10 mph over | 3 | Trans 101.02(3)(n) |
| Speeding more than 10 but less than 20 over | 4 | Trans 101.02(2)(i) |
| Speeding 20 or more over | 6 | Trans 101.02(1)(j) |
| Reckless driving | 6 | Trans 101.02(1)(i) |
| Deviating from lane of traffic | 4 | Trans 101.02(2)(a) |
| Failure to obey a traffic control device | 3 | Trans 101.02(3)(e) |
| Following too closely | 3 | Trans 101.02(3)(f) |
| All other moving traffic convictions | 2 | Trans 101.02(4)(e) |
Trans 101.04(1) is the threshold: the department suspends the operating privilege of any person whose record shows 12 points for violations committed within any 12-month period. The length comes from the table in Trans 101.04(3): 12 to 16 points is 2 months, 17 to 22 is 4 months, 23 to 30 is 6 months, and more than 30 points is a year. Probationary and instruction-permit holders run on the harsher table in Trans 101.04(3m), where 12 to 30 points is a flat 6 months, and under Trans 101.02(7)(a) they are assessed double the listed point value once they have a prior point-carrying conviction.
Two relief valves exist. Trans 101.03 lets the department warn a driver at 6 or more points in a 12-month period, which is the last quiet signal before the arithmetic bites. And Trans 101.07(1) reduces assessed points by up to 3 for completing an approved traffic safety school, defensive driving course or driver improvement counseling, with Trans 101.07(3) allowing only one such reduction in any 3-year period. Spend it deliberately.
Separate from points entirely: under Wis. Stat. § 343.30(1n) a court shall suspend the operating privilege for 15 days on a conviction for exceeding a § 346.57(4)(gm) or (h) limit by 25 or more miles per hour. Those are the 55, 65 and 70 mph limits, which is to say I-94.
Paying the ticket is entering a plea
This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in traffic court. Under Wis. Stat. § 345.26(1)(b)1, a person who makes the deposit “will be deemed to have tendered a plea of no contest and submitted to a forfeiture, plus costs, fees, and surcharges imposed under ch. 814.”
And the licensing system treats that as a conviction. Wis. Stat. § 340.01(9r) defines “conviction” to include “an unvacated forfeiture of property deposited to secure the person’s appearance in court” and expressly lists “[a] forfeiture of deposit under ss. 345.26 and 345.37.”
Paying is not making it go away. Paying is the fastest available way to post the points.
The opposite mistake costs more. Under § 345.47(1)(b) the court may suspend your operating privilege “for 30 days or until the person pays the forfeiture, plus costs, fees, and surcharges imposed under ch. 814, but not to exceed one year,” and § 345.26(1)(b)2 warns that failing to deposit or appear can produce a default judgment or an arrest warrant. If money is the problem, say so: § 345.47(1) requires the court to tell you to raise inability to pay, and the court must consider installments using the criteria in § 814.29(1)(d) before suspending.
The insurance question, which is usually the real one
For most people the deposit is not the expensive part. The insurance is, and it is the thing clients ask about first.
Here is what Wisconsin’s own insurance regulator says. The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, in its automobile insurance FAQ, puts it plainly:
“Your insurer may charge a surcharge (an extra fee) if you’re involved in a chargeable accident or are ticketed for a traffic violation. Surcharges must be applied uniformly and are required to be filed with OCI. However, OCI does not play a role in your insurance company’s decision to raise your premiums.”
Three things follow, and they are the useful part:
A surcharge is a filed rate, not a judgment call. Your carrier has to have filed its surcharge schedule with OCI and has to apply it uniformly. Nobody is improvising a number for you specifically.
OCI does not review the increase itself. There is no state agency you can appeal a premium rise to. The regulator’s role is the filing, not your bill.
The conviction, not the citation, is what carriers price off. That is why the earlier sections of this page matter. A citation resolved without a conviction on the driving record is not a rating event, and Wis. Stat. § 343.23(2)(b) governs how long what is on the record stays visible.
What we will not print is a specific dollar figure. Insurers price independently, the effect varies by carrier, by driver, by policy and by what else is already on the record, and OCI publishes no table of surcharge amounts because there is not one to publish. Any page telling you a Wisconsin speeding ticket costs exactly some number of dollars over exactly three years invented it. If you want your own number, ask your agent what your carrier’s filed surcharge is for the specific violation, and ask before you decide how to handle the citation rather than after.
The I-94 problem, specifically
Kenosha County’s western edge is Interstate 94, and under Wis. Stat. § 346.57(4)(gm)2 the limit on a freeway is 70 miles per hour. Two consequences follow. First, State Patrol citations on that corridor are state statute citations, so they land in circuit court with the full cost stack, not in a village municipal court. Second, 25 over on a 70 is 95, which crosses § 343.30(1n) and takes the license for 15 days on top of everything else.
Commercial drivers on that corridor have a third problem, and it is federal. Under Table 2 to 49 CFR § 383.51 a serious traffic violation includes “[s]peeding excessively, involving any speed of 24.1 kmph (15 mph) or more above the regulated or posted speed limit,” and two of those in a 3-year period is a 60-day disqualification. Our CDL ticket page and the post on a CDL holder cited in a personal car cover how that interacts with Wisconsin points.
The searches that bring people here
People land on this page having typed kenosha traffic violation lawyers, kenosha wisconsin traffic violation lawyers, kenosha traffic offense attorney, and kenosha speeding defense attorney. The useful version of that search is narrower: which of Kenosha County’s nine courts is my citation returnable to, and does the lawyer I am calling appear there?
Before you pay anything, four steps:
- Read the court name and deposit address on the citation. That is your venue.
- Look up the offense in the 2026 uniform deposit schedule and note the demerit points column, not just the dollars.
- Add those points to what is already on your record inside the last 12 months, using violation dates.
- Decide before the deposit deadline, because paying is pleading.
Related reading: Speeding tickets · CDL violations · Reckless driving · Suspended license and reinstatement · Kenosha County · Your first time in a Wisconsin municipal court
Impaired driving, refusals and the ten-day license deadlines that follow an OWI arrest are handled by racineowi.com. Non-traffic criminal charges in Kenosha and Racine counties are at racinelaw.com.