Friday, July 3, 1998 | 9:26 a.m.
Las Vegas residents know that this is a 24-hour town, but some may be surprised at the extent to which this all-hours mentality can run. Residents can do just about anything at anytime in the valley and that includes taking care of a traffic ticket.
Las Vegas Justice Court provides a weekly night court for traffic violations on Wednesdays, while Municipal Court holds night sessions Mondays through Wednesdays. The sessions are not 24 hours -- but may be moving in that direction, officials said. At this time they run from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
"We added the night sessions because of the increasing volume of traffic citations," Martin Lotz, acting Justice Court administrator, said. "We have around 167,000 traffic citations filed every year and 20,000 to 30,000 of those request hearings."
Night courts came on line three years ago and have kept pace with the increasing number of traffic citations. According to Lotz, citations increase by about 8 percent to 10 percent a year and eventually more sessions will be needed to satisfy the valley's ever-burgeoning population.
Convenient times for residents to take care of traffic problems are a nice side effect of Clark County's growth, Lotz said.
"We are limited in the number of sessions we can provide by the amount of money that the county allocates," Lotz said. "We know that varying our session times is helpful to the public and we are happy to give them the opportunity to go to court outside of normal times."
Judge Jim M. Boyles agrees that the new sessions increase service to the community, which is why he volunteered to oversee the new session at the Justice Court three years ago.
"With the increasing number of citations the extra session became necessary," Boyles said. "The positive is that it allows us to help those that can't get in during the day because of work. For a lot of people, leaving work in the middle of the day could get them fired."
Tracy Dahl is a perfect example of someone whose job would get in the way of a daytime court appearance.
"I work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a doctor's office, so I still had to get off a little early to make this session. But it's still better then coming down in the middle of the day and then having to go back to work," Dahl said.
Fiesta hotel-casino bartender Randy Matthews is another person who has benefited from the night-court session.
"It (night court) is a much more convenient situation for me," Matthews said. "I work a swing shift, so I don't even get up until 2 p.m. It's perfect for me."
Las Vegas District courts also have seen the light when it comes to the effectiveness of night court. The district drug court runs a night-court session from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Wednesday.
The drug court, designed to help drug addicts avoid a jail sentence while they receive treatment, went to a night session to accommodate those that have jobs.
"In phase three of the drug-court program the participants are encouraged to get jobs," District Judge Jack Lehman said. "If they show that they are employed, we allow them to come to the night session."
Gainful employment is the only way to get into Lehman's night court, but anyone can attend the traffic night court.
Las Vegan Mark Rodney is not the type of person who usually attends traffic night court because he works nights. Rodney is a night jazz disc jockey at a local radio station. His experience at night court was not as convenient as he had hoped it would be.
Rodney, who was in court because he pulled out of a driveway and hit a Metro Police cruiser, feels court is an inconvenience at anytime.
"This seems like it will be a little less crowded than the daytime courts, but either way coming to court is never fun," Rodney said. "It may be night court, but it's not very exciting. You don't see that guy Bull from the TV show around here."
Bull, a character played by Richard Moll on the long-running "Night Court" television series, was indeed not in attendance in Boyles' court, but in the end Rodney felt a little better about his situation.
"I got the judge to knock off three out of four points on my record," Rodney said as he was leaving. "That's pretty good, but the meter still ripped me off by eating my dime on the way in. I'm never going to get any justice."
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