Judge handles tickets just fine

Justice of the Peace Douglas Smith is trying something new with traffic court.

Up on the seventh floor of the Regional Justice Center every Thursday, he's throwing his courtroom doors open at 12:30 p.m. for two hours to anybody who wants to see a judge about a traffic ticket received in the county's jurisdiction.

"I'm trying to make it easier for people to resolve their citations," he said.

Rather than wait in line at the traffic court's customer service department on the first floor to see traffic court Referee Robert Kelley in the lower level, drivers whose tickets were received in the county's jurisdiction -- as opposed to Las Vegas, North Las Vegas or Henderson's -- can meet with Smith and in most cases get their citations reduced and paid off in one shot.

"People really don't care about the amount" of the fine, Smith said. "It's about the points." If drivers have a good record, he's likely to reduce a moving violation to a nonmoving violation, "because the insurance companies make such a killing."

For the last 13 years, Smith has been offering a similar service to the public, except people called his judicial executive assistant to set an appointment to see Smith in his courtroom to avoid the longer lines for the traffic court on the lower level.

Trouble was that few outside the courthouse knew about it, and the process had been given the somewhat inflammatory term of "friends and family" sessions.

Smith disputes the term and emphasized anybody who knew about the procedure could make an appointment.

"It was word of mouth. Anyone could call my JEA (judicial executive assistant) and say, 'I have a ticket.'"

Now, no one needs to make an appointment. On May 31, however, a noticeable handful of judicial staff were there on their lunch breaks to bring their traffic tickets or those belonging to friends or family to Smith.

The judge warned that drivers need to check online or in the traffic department to ensure their tickets have been entered into the traffic court computer system and are in the county's jurisdiction.

Fliers were posted around the entrance to Smith's courtroom advertising the session.

Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said traffic court clerks have begun telling people about Smith's sessions, and he plans to put information about it on the traffic court's Web site.

The first day of the new sessions, May 17, only a few people showed up, Smith said. Two had tickets that belonged in municipal court and so he had to turn them away.

On May 24, the second session, about 20 people showed to adjudicate their tickets with Smith.

A Las Vegas police officer, who declined an interview, was there to get Smith to handle a ticket for a friend.

Two attorneys arrived to get Smith to handle a few tickets for their clients or friends, for which they were not paid.

About eight lay people were there to take care of their cases as well.

"It went very smooth. He was very lenient," said Mario Buonanno, a longtime Nevadan.

He had no proof of insurance in his car at the time he was pulled over for going 60 mph in a 30 mph zone. He also wasn't wearing a seat belt.

Smith told him to buckle up from now on and reduced his speeding citation to an illegal parking ticket and gave him a fine of $140. Buonanno paid up in the courtroom.

The speeding ticket would have added four points to his driving record and, according to the county, cost him about $460, including the $67 fine for not wearing a seat belt.

"Trust me, I'm really happy," Buonanno said.

He showed proof of his insurance, which was valid at the time of the citation, and that charge was dismissed.

The whole process took him about 20 minutes.