Sigalert at L.A. traffic court

Apparently, L.A. County traffic court has some of the same issues as the 405 Freeway at rush hour. But according to City News Service, some help is on the way (for the courthouse, not the 405):

In an attempt to clear a backlog of traffic arraignments at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Courthouse, a team of judges volunteered to spend this week hearing the cases. The judges hope to hear some 2,250 misdemeanor traffic arraignments, chipping away at a backlog that has been building since one of the Metropolitan Courthouse’s arraignment courts was closed in 2003, according to the county. By the end of the week, court officials estimate that the time for scheduling arraignments will be improved by roughly three weeks. Of the volunteers, only one -- Judge J. Stephen Czuleger -- has experience sitting in a traffic court, officials said. All of them, however, attended a two-hour training session to prepare for this week. Despite the high volume of people entering the court for the arraignments, court management officials said it was “business as usual.” On Monday, 9,000 people passed through the weapons screening at the courthouse, as opposed to the usual 6,000 to 6,500, county officials said.

Comments

[Don Miller]

I don't know about any other day. I can tell you that yesterday November, 17th 2008 was a hell down there. I have never seen such a zoo passing as a 'court'.

'High-lights' -

2.5 hours waiting in line.

a court room with 100 defendants, plus friends, relatives, squalling babies and passers through talking to themselves, eating chips out of a big bag and unable to comprehend the meaning of the words 'guilty' or 'not guilty'.

Line that reached almost 1/2 way around the courthouse in the baking afternoon sun.

Woman with a gun asking a one armed man to remove his belt before entering the courthouse.

A line 'in' the cashier's office that ran around the interior of the room out the door into the submarine like hallway w/o windows all the way down to the low pressure water 'fountain' and around the corner to the main corridor. If they had not taken some of the evil-doers away to another floor, it would have taken another hour to process all the outrageous fines.

This was a disgraceful way to treat people.

[Los Angeles Traffic Court]

Wow! 9000 people in one day? That is one busy traffic court.
Looks like this volunteer thing is really just a short-term duct-tape fix. Probably a systemic problem like writing too many tickets.