NCJ Number
93145
Date Published
1981
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Techniques are recommended for improving both tthe effectiveness of the traffic court and the court's relationship to the public it serves.
Abstract
Most traffic cases should be promptly tried on the defendant's first and only court appearance. In larger communities, the police officer, who will have a preassigned schedule for all court appearances, should write the defendant's trial date, time and court room on the traffic citation. To reduce the need for continuances, some jurisdictions provide defendants with a statement of their rights and procedures to be followed. Guilty pleas are increasingly disposed administratively through a traffic violations bureau in the clerk's office rather than by an appearance before the judge. The uniform traffic summons and complaint, which has replaced legal pleadings in many jurisdictions, speeds citation processing and reporting by courts. Pretrial detention and jailing for ordinary traffic offenses should be eliminated, as should post-conviction incarceration. Trying traffic charges as civil forfeitures is a method used in some States as a form of decriminalization of traffic cases. Administrative adjudication has not gained general acceptance as a means of handling traffic cases. Sentencing alternatives now include fines, schools, rehabilitaton programs, and recommendations of license action. An annotated bibliography lists nine sources.