The Judicial Council on Thursday authorized courts to handle traffic infraction proceedings by remote-location video despite the objections of criminal defense attorneys and interpreters.
The pilot program will allow courts to set up makeshift hearing rooms in far-flung city halls or county buildings so that distant residents can plead their traffic case over the airwaves to a bench officer sitting miles away. Fresno County Superior Court is expected to be the first to hook up the new system after officials there closed seven outlying courthouses and consolidated operations in three Fresno city buildings. But the proposal adopted Thursday will allow any court to create a traffic proceedings-by-video system with the council’s approval.
