Initial Appearance

An initial appearance for adults and juveniles charged with violating a Village of Waterford ordinance is the date stated on your citation. Each individual citation will indicate the specific date and time. At the initial appearance, the defendant may enter a plea. Please note that the Village Attorney is present in Court on initial appearance days and will discuss your case with you. Only cases with a Guilty or No Contest plea will be heard immediately at the current court session.

Not Guilty Pleas

A plea of Not Guilty will cause the case to be scheduled for a pre-trial and possibly a trial at a later date. If you are cited for a violation of Driving While Intoxicated and plead Not Guilty, you may request a Jury Trial before the Racine County Circuit Court. A written request and payment of the required fees must be made within 10 days of the initial appearance.

Failure to Appear

If you fail to appear in Court for your initial appearance, a default judgment will be entered against you. Exceptions to this are if you previously paid the forfeiture in full, requested a continuance, or entered a Not Guilty plea in writing or via phone or email before the court session. If you did not complete 1 of those 3 steps then you will receive a notice of your default judgment in the mail.

Failure to Comply

If a judgment is imposed and you fail to comply with the Court’s order, and you do not contact this court to explain why you have not complied, one or more of the following actions will occur: 

     - the fine referred to a collection agency

     - a commitment issued for your arrest

     - driver’s license suspended for up to 2 years

     - vehicle registration suspended for delinquent parking tickets

Juveniles

Initial appearances for juveniles charged with violating a Village of Waterford ordinance are held on the date stated on your citation beginning at 3pm. All juvenile proceedings are confidential with the exception of traffic violations. Typically, only the juvenile and his / her parents are permitted into the Judge’s office for the proceeding. A money judgment may be entered against a juvenile found guilty of a traffic or non-traffic ordinance violation similar to the adult process.