Objecting to Traffic Fines (Saher) via Absher: Deadlines, Discounts, and Fine Tiers

The short answer

Article 75 of the Traffic Law gives the violator the right to object **before the competent court** within **thirty days of being notified** of the violation, not from its issue date, and the court may hear a late objection for an excuse it accepts. The Saudi Unified National Platform lists the objection service as **free**, executed **immediately**. A reduction is capped at **25 percent of the fine's minimum value** under ministerial controls, and a single fine may be paid in instalments.

5 min read

Saudi Arabia's automated traffic enforcement system — led by the Saher camera network — is balanced by a statutory right of objection. The law places that right in the competent court: Article 75 of the Traffic Law gives the violator the right to object to the violation before the competent court within thirty days of being notified of it. Absher is the electronic channel through which requests are filed and tracked, not a substitute for the court's jurisdiction. As part of the government procedures and platforms guides on Hala Law, this page presents the objection fee and statutory deadlines, what happens after a rejection, the available discounts, and the fine-tier table as documented by the reference sources as of June 2026.

The objection is completely free

Filing an objection to a traffic violation via the Absher portal is entirely free of charge — 0 SAR. There is no submission or review fee: the objection is a statutory mechanism to maintain due process in the automated enforcement system, not a paid service.

Statutory deadlines: the timeline table

These are the periods Article 75 of the Traffic Law itself sets:

Deadline	Duration	What the law provides
Filing the objection	30 days from being notified of the violation	Before the competent court. Missing it does not close the door: the court may hear the objection afterwards if the objector offers an excuse it accepts
Payment	Once the objection period lapses without objection, or the court rejects the objection	The violator must pay; the article contains no fifteen-day term
Accumulated fines reaching SAR 20,000 or more, or six months from notification without payment	Notice to pay within no more than 30 days	Failing which the violator is referred to the competent court
Reduction	No more than 25 percent of the fine's minimum value	Under controls set by the Minister of Interior in agreement with the Minister of Finance; a single fine may also be paid in instalments

Article 75 provides no 90-day extension of the payment period; the confirmed periods are those above.

Objection steps via Absher — general framework

At a general level, the objection proceeds as follows:

Log in to the Absher platform with the user's account.
Open the traffic violation objection service within the traffic services.
Select the violation being objected to within the 30-day window that runs from notification.
State the grounds for the objection and attach supporting evidence or documents.
Submit the request and track its status via the platform.

Screen labels and interface details may change with platform updates; the framework above reflects the last verification in June 2026.

What happens after filing the objection?

The objection is referred to the traffic court or the relevant internal committee for review. One of two paths follows:

Objection accepted: the violation is handled per the reviewing body's decision.
Objection rejected: the fine becomes final and payment falls due. Article 75 fixes no day-count for payment after a rejection; what it does attach to accumulation is that once fines reach SAR 20,000 or more, or six months pass from notification without payment, the violator is notified to pay within no more than thirty days, and is then referred to the competent court.

The outcome of an objection depends on the facts of each violation and the evidence submitted with it — a matter the reviewing body assesses case by case.

Reduction: a 25% ceiling in the law, and 50% under announced initiatives

The familiar phrasing — "a 25% discount for paying early" — is less precise than the text in three ways:

A ceiling, not a granted rate: Article 75 permits the fine to be reduced by no more than 25 percent. It is an upper limit, not an automatic entitlement.
Computed on the minimum: the percentage applies to the fine's minimum value, not the amount issued — a material difference in the wide-range tiers.
Conditional on ministerial controls: the reduction applies under controls set by the Minister of Interior in agreement with the Minister of Finance. The article also permits paying a single fine in instalments.

The text ties the reduction to no 45-day window and provides no 90-day payment extension, so we do not state either here.

50% discount under special initiatives: from time to time, royal or ministerial initiatives grant a comprehensive 50% discount on accumulated legacy fines, provided they are settled within an announced grace period spanning several months. These initiatives are temporary, and their validity is tied to the official announcement at the time it is made.

Traffic fine tiers

Fines are tiered by the severity of the infraction. The table below presents the tiers as listed in the source material:

Tier	Fine range (SAR)	Examples
Minor infractions	150 – 300	Failing to use a turn signal, reversing unsafely
Mid-level offenses	300 – 500	Throwing objects from a vehicle, unjustified deceleration
Severe commercial infractions	1,000 – 2,000	Heavy trucks entering cities during prohibited hours
Most severe violations	5,000 – 10,000	Driving under the influence of narcotics or alcohol
Speeding	150 – 2,000	Sliding scale by speed limit and margin of excess

Speeding violations operate on a sliding scale: starting at 150 SAR and reaching 2,000 SAR for severe infractions, based on the posted speed limit and the margin by which it was exceeded.

When do you need a licensed lawyer?

The information here is a general framework about the objection service, its deadlines, and the fine tiers — not an assessment of any specific case. A matter moves closer to needing a licensed professional when:

The violation is tied to a wider incident — such as a traffic accident involving damage or injuries — whose effect goes beyond the fine itself.
The violation falls in the most severe tier (5,000 – 10,000 SAR), given the additional proceedings that may accompany it.
Multiple violations accumulate and their objection and payment deadlines overlap.
A rejected objection is to be challenged and the facts have become complex.

In these situations, the outcome depends on the facts of the violation, the evidence, and the running deadlines — matters assessed case by case.

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Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to object to a Saher fine?

Filing an objection to a traffic violation via the Absher platform is completely free — 0 SAR — according to the reference sources as of June 2026.

How long do I have to object to a traffic violation?

Article 75 of the Traffic Law gives the violator the right to object **before the competent court** within **thirty days of being notified** of the violation — the clock runs from notification, not from issuance. Nor is the deadline absolute in the restrictive direction: **the court may hear an objection after that period if the objector offers an excuse it accepts**.

What happens if the objection is rejected?

Paragraph 2 of Article 75 provides that once the objection period lapses without objection, or the competent court rejects the objection, or a judgment amends the amount of the fine — **the violator must pay**. The article contains no fifteen-day term and no extension to ninety days. What it does attach to accumulation is this: where unpaid fines reach **SAR 20,000 or more**, or **six months** pass from notification without payment, the violator is notified to pay within **no more than thirty days**, failing which they are referred to the competent court.

When does the 25% discount apply?

The text is more precise in three ways. Article 75, after the amendment of its paragraphs 2 and 3, permits the fine to be reduced by **no more than 25 percent** — a **ceiling, not a granted rate**; it is computed on the **minimum value of the fine** rather than the amount issued; and it applies **under controls set by the Minister of Interior in agreement with the Minister of Finance**, not automatically. The 45-day and 90-day windows could not be verified in the text of the law. The article also permits **paying a single fine in instalments**.

Are there 50% discounts on old fines?

The Ministry of Interior launched a 50 percent reduction on fines accumulated before a stated date, then extended it, then **announced the end of the extension**. These initiatives are temporary by nature and tied to a specific official announcement for each; it is not safe to assume a 50 percent discount is available at any given time. What stands in the law is the 25 percent ceiling in Article 75.

Official sources

Source	Article / reference	As of
Traffic Law — Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers	Article 75 as amended by Royal Decree M/115 of 5/12/1439H: the violator has the right to object to the violation before the competent court within thirty days of being notified of it, and the court may hear a late objection if an excuse it accepts is offered; once the period lapses without objection, or the court rejects it, payment becomes due; where accumulated fines reach SAR 20,000 or more, or six months pass from notification without payment, the violator is notified to pay within no more than thirty days and is then referred to the competent court. Paragraphs 2 and 3 as amended: the fine may be reduced by no more than 25% of its minimum value under controls set by the Minister of Interior in agreement with the Minister of Finance, and a single fine may be paid in instalments	2026-07-26
Objecting to traffic violations — Saudi Unified National Platform	Service card: service cost free, service duration immediate, delivery channels web portal plus iOS and Android apps, target audience individuals, citizens and residents, listed under traffic services	2026-07-26

Change log

2026-07-26Finished a correction that had been left half-done. An earlier fix the same day withdrew the fifteen-day payment term, the ninety-day extension and the forty-five-day window from the deadline table and the FAQ, having established that Article 75 contains none of them — but they survived in the page body, the answer and the description. The page therefore contradicted its own changelog and its own table: the table said the 45-day window could not be verified, and the body asserted it as fact a few lines later. Removed all three everywhere. Corrected the answer and description, which alone still said the thirty days run from issuance while the FAQ said the opposite: the objection lies before the competent court and the clock runs from notification. Rewrote the discounts section to match the text — a 25 percent ceiling computed on the minimum value under controls set by the Ministers of Interior and Finance, with instalments permitted. Attributed the absence of a fee to the Unified National Platform service card (cost free, duration immediate), which replaces the Absher and Interior homepages, on which nothing was checkable.
2026-07-26Substantive correction against the text of Article 75 of the Traffic Law (as amended by Royal Decree M/115): the objection lies before the competent court rather than the Absher platform alone; the thirty days run from notification, not issuance; and the court may hear a late objection on an accepted excuse — the page had described the deadlines as strictly applied. Withdrew the fifteen-day payment term and the ninety-day extension, neither of which appears in the article, and replaced them with what the article does attach to accumulation: SAR 20,000 or six months, then notice to pay within thirty days, then referral to the competent court. Corrected the 25 percent discount from a granted rate to a ceiling computed on the minimum value of the fine under ministerial controls. Added that a single fine may be paid in instalments. Deep-linked the law in place of the portal homepages.
2026-07-07First edition

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