Community Corner
Failures To Appear, Defaults Spike For Traffic Violations After Change To Denver ‘Virtual Court’
A CBS4 Investigation found driver after driver showing up to a closed courthouse and confused by what they were supposed to do.
By Brian Maass
July 30, 2020
Find out what's happening in Denverfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
DENVER (CBS4) – The number of people failing to appear in Denver’s night traffic court in June and July soared 215% from the same time in 2019, and default judgments against drivers also spiked by 50%, as a CBS4 Investigation found driver after driver showing up to a closed courthouse and confused by what they were supposed to do.
Jack Reed, 33, told CBS4, “The court is basically saying you have to follow the rules but we don’t. If you don’t show up you go to jail. If we don’t show up, we’ll tell you to show up again later.”
Find out what's happening in Denverfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Reed had two moving violations in Denver in 2020, and followed the directions on the citations on when to appear for night traffic court, which normally has sessions at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. But each time he appeared in person for his court dates over the last several months, court personnel had been sent home for the day either due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions, downtown rioting or other factors.
Read more at CBS Denver
