Little Rock's traffic judge, Vic Fleming, is calling on people to contact his office as soon as possible to resolve their traffic citations through his virtual-court program, reporting that he'll keep his courtroom doors closed until at least September because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fleming is using the Webex conferencing program, which allows for phone and videoconferencing, but people need to get on the docket by emailing TrafficCourtContact@littlerock.gov or by calling (501) 371-4733 during weekday business hours.
The program is working well, said Fleming, the Little Rock district judge who oversees city traffic violations, reported recently to Mayor Frank Scott Jr. He said about 100 cases a week are resolved through the virtual court program, which he implemented in mid-May.
"Each of the past few weeks, we have been able to handle 100 or more cases via teleconferencing and telephone," he told Scott. "We are finding that dozens of people are expressing sincere gratitude for our efforts in helping them resolve issues that have been looming in their lives for weeks now. Most people want to deal with their citations in a timely manner."
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The ticketed also need to make sure they respond to any communication, letters or phone calls from court staff members, who have been reaching out to them about getting their traffic citations taken care of, Fleming stated.
"The key factor is the ticket recipient's willingness to get back to us when we reach out to them. And to communicate with us via email or cell phone," Fleming said in his report. "Our staff is doing the best it can with snail-mail addresses (which are often incorrect) and telephone numbers (that are often either landlines or cell phones with voice-mailboxes that are full or not set up)."
Ticketed folks need to make contact as soon as possible and not show up at the courtroom, which will be open in rare circumstances, he said.
"We want them to call early so we can pull their files before deadlines loom. Some cases can be resolved with one phone call or by emailing one document," Fleming stated.