Carrollton Municipal Court Warrants

The Carrollton Municipal Court

One court handles every City of Carrollton citation: the Carrollton Municipal Court at 2001 E. Jackson Road, in the city’s service-center area. It is the only body that can recall the warrants it issues, so whatever path you take to clear one ends at this court’s window or its online portal.

Carrollton is unusual among North Texas suburbs in that its roughly 133,000 residents are spread across three different counties — most of the city sits in Dallas County, a large northern slice reaches into Denton County, and a small corner falls in Collin County. That tri-county geography matters less than people expect: no matter which county you live in, every Carrollton PD traffic ticket and every city-ordinance violation is filed in and decided by this single municipal court. County lines never split the city’s docket. Where county of residence does matter is for higher-level cases — a state-jail felony, a Class A or B misdemeanor, or a county or district matter is filed in the county where it arose, not at this fine-only city court. The municipal court’s reach stops at Class C offenses: speeding and other moving violations, no-insurance and expired-registration tickets, code-compliance and animal and parking matters, and similar city charges. Confirm any warrant through the contacts below before deciding what to do next.

The court has long been presided over by Judge Meredith Lyon, with associate or assistant judges who have historically included Cathy Haden and Dana Huffman. Carrollton’s municipal judges are appointed by the City Council and reappointed on a term cycle, and it is the presiding judge who signs the order recalling a warrant once the underlying case is addressed.

This court has no published email address and takes contact by phone or in person. What it handles: Class C misdemeanor, traffic, and city-ordinance offenses, plus the warrants that flow from them — an alias warrant when a citation is never answered, or a capias pro fine warrant when a fine or judgment goes unpaid.

How to check for a Carrollton warrant

Carrollton gives you two online tools and a phone line. The Municipal Online Services portal lets you search a citation by number, name, license, or plate; the city’s separate Active Warrant Search returns open warrants once you supply the court’s Pay Location Code; and the Warrant Division can confirm anything by phone.

1. Search the Municipal Online Services portal. Carrollton’s citation tool lives at carrolltontx.municipalonlinepayments.com, where you can pull a case by citation number, name, driver’s license, or license plate. Online payment there requires entering a guilty or no-contest plea, so read the screen before you click pay.
2. Run the city’s Active Warrant Search. The City of Carrollton hosts a dedicated warrant lookup that needs the court’s Pay Location Code — PLC 9291 — together with your case number and the amount due. If you don’t have those numbers, the court can give them to you over the phone.
3. Call the court or the Warrant Division. The main line is (972) 466-3348 and the Warrant Division is (972) 466-4777. Staff can confirm a citation, its status, and whether a bond has been set. The court keeps no public email, so plan on phone or in-person contact.
4. Have a lawyer check quietly. A defense attorney can confirm a Carrollton warrant and the balance owed on your behalf, so you understand your exposure before you ever approach the clerk.

To sweep other North Texas courts at the same time, see our guide on how to find out if you have a warrant.

What warrants the Carrollton court issues

What sets Carrollton apart from many cities is its own enforcement arm: the Carrollton City Marshal’s Office. Because the court’s jurisdiction is fine-only, the warrants it issues are never felony warrants — they are alias and capias pro fine warrants on unresolved Class C cases, which the marshals are tasked with serving.

Alias warrant

Issued when you were cited but never answered — no plea, no appearance — so the ticket sat open. It is how the court compels that missing first appearance on the underlying Class C charge.

Capias pro fine

Issued after the case is over, when the fine or court cost in the judgment goes unpaid. The conviction already stands, so resolving it turns on paying the balance, setting a plan, or securing an alternative the court will accept.

Failure to appear

Flows from missing a scheduled Carrollton setting. A missed date can add a fresh failure-to-appear charge that rides on top of the original ticket and can trigger a hold on your driver’s license renewal.

The Carrollton City Marshal’s Office. Carrollton’s marshals are sworn Texas peace officers, a force separate from the Police Department, dedicated to enforcing the municipal court’s outstanding warrants. They locate and arrest warrant subjects at home, at work, or at school, and the program lets a person stopped on a warrant call a toll-free number to pay the city’s card vendor by phone at the officer’s discretion, which can head off an arrest. Carrollton PD officers also arrest on these warrants during routine traffic stops when a license check returns an open warrant. Warrant-Division questions go to (972) 466-4777. Carrollton also takes part each year in the statewide Great Texas Warrant Roundup — the coordinated late-February enforcement push across 300-plus Texas agencies — and runs a pre-roundup amnesty window urging residents to come in voluntarily to pay or set a plan before arrests begin. Worth knowing before you act: simply paying a fine to lift a warrant is a conviction that goes on your driving record, which is one reason to talk to counsel first.

The rules behind all of this come from the framework the Legislature wrote for municipal courts in Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 45.

How to clear a Carrollton warrant

Clearing a Carrollton warrant is a four-step sequence aimed at getting ahead of the marshals: confirm the case and amount, choose how to resolve it, let a lawyer line up a bond or a motion to recall where that helps, and then dispose of the ticket on its new date.

1. Confirm the case and the amount with the Carrollton court. Pull the citation, status, and any balance from carrolltontx.municipalonlinepayments.com or the city’s Active Warrant Search (PLC 9291), or call (972) 466-3348 or the Warrant Division at (972) 466-4777.
2. Choose your path: pay the case, set up a payment plan, or request an ability-to-pay hearing under Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 45.045. Paying satisfies a fine-only warrant outright; a payment plan keeps you current while you pay it down; and an ability-to-pay hearing lets the judge weigh alternatives such as installments or community service instead of treating nonpayment as contempt. See Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 45.
3. Ask a defense lawyer to post a bond or move to recall the warrant. Counsel can sometimes arrange a bond in advance or ask the court to recall the warrant, so you re-engage on a scheduled date rather than during a marshal contact or a traffic stop.
4. Dispose of the underlying citation. Lifting the warrant does not close the ticket — you still appear on the new setting and resolve the Class C charge the warrant was attached to.

For the approach that works in any Texas court, read how to lift a warrant and bond vs. surrender.

What to expect

Because Carrollton fields its own marshals, the real value of acting early is converting an open warrant into a scheduled court date before an officer turns it into an arrest. A municipal warrant here is a money-and-paperwork problem — but the citation underneath it still has to be answered.

Once you pay to lift or bond out of a Carrollton warrant, the court typically resets the case so the original citation can be disposed of. On that date you can work toward an outcome — for many traffic and Class C tickets that might mean a dismissal after a driving-safety course, deferred disposition, a reduced fine, or a structured payment plan, depending on the facts and your record. When money is the barrier, the law requires the judge to consider your ability to pay before treating nonpayment as contempt, and that review happens at the ability-to-pay hearing under Art. 45.045 and Art. 45.046. The practical goal is to stop one Carrollton ticket from snowballing into an added failure-to-appear charge, a hold on your driver’s license renewal, or a marshal’s knock at your door — and to keep a quick fine payment from quietly becoming a conviction on your driving record before you have weighed your options.

How a lawyer helps with a Carrollton warrant

A defense lawyer can confirm the Carrollton warrant, gauge the likely bond, arrange release ahead of any marshal contact, and stand with you to dispose of the citation — turning an open-ended worry into a planned, manageable step.

L and L Law Group is a Frisco-based criminal-defense firm led by Co-Founding Partners Reggie London and Njeri London. Because Carrollton sits squarely in the firm’s North Texas footprint — with the city straddling Dallas, Denton, and Collin counties, all areas the firm serves — the attorneys understand both how Carrollton’s municipal cases move and how the county-level cases that can grow out of a Carrollton arrest are filed in whichever of those counties an offense occurred. For a Carrollton matter, that can mean verifying the warrant and the balance with the court, advising whether to pay, set a plan, or request an ability-to-pay hearing, filing a motion to recall when it fits, and getting ahead of the city marshals so the appearance is on your terms. This site is an educational resource; when you want hands-on help, the firm can carry a Carrollton warrant from confirmation through resolution. Learn more at L and L Law Group.

Related

Carrollton warrant FAQ

This page is general legal information about Texas law, not legal advice for your specific situation. Statutes and court procedures change; verify current requirements with the relevant court or a licensed Texas attorney. Last reviewed June 22, 2026.