North County Mobile Court Ready for Road

North County Municipal Court officials Monday afternoon unveiled a traveling traffic office that will be used to reduce the long lines at the San Marcos Municipal Courthouse, starting next week.

Beginning April 17 the shiny new van, which houses the mobile office, will begin traveling to Oceanside, Camp Pendleton and Encinitas so that the public can take care of a variety of matters that do not require the presence of a judge or commissioner, said Sharon Lear, assistant court administrator for the North County Municipal Court. Those matters include signing up for traffic school, submitting corrections of citations and pleading guilty to offenses and setting up court appearances.

“We have really long lines in San Marcos,” Lear said. “Generally the wait is only 20 minutes, but this way people won’t have to wait in line so long.”

The San Marcos Courthouse handles an average of 15,000 traffic tickets a month from all over North County, Lear said.

The three coastal communities were chosen for the program, since they are among the most populated areas of North County farthest from the San Marcos court, Lear said.

The mobile office is expected to be a big success at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in Oceanside, where military officers would prefer to see service men and women stay on base rather than take the time to drive between Oceanside and San Marcos trying to clear up a traffic ticket, Johnson said.

“When we presented the idea to them, they jumped all over it,” Johnson said.

The mobile office will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Encinitas sheriff’s station on Tuesdays, at Camp Pendleton near the Department of Motor Vehicles office on Wednesdays and at the Oceanside Department of Motor Vehicles office on Thursdays, Lear said.

“Depending on the success of this, we would like to extend the hours,” Lear said. “If it becomes successful, we may go inland to other communities such as Fallbrook and Escondido.”