2 Area Malls Get Traffic-Ticket ATMs

Two contraptions featuring everything a lead-footed driver would need to pay a speeding ticket--except perhaps a sympathetic judge--were opened in Oxnard and Ventura malls Thursday.

In a move intended to make routine court transactions more convenient, the ATM-like machines will allow Ventura County residents to conduct court business miles away from the courthouse.

The Auto Clerks, as the machines have been dubbed, also provide information about how to file small-claims cases. Eventually, customers will be able to file small-claim suits and conduct other court business at the Auto Clerks.

The machines, at Centerpoint Mall in Oxnard and Buenaventura Mall in Ventura, became operational after dedication ceremonies Thursday. A third machine will be installed at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks in several months, officials said.

The three $18,000 kiosks were purchased by the California Traffic Safety Institute, a nonprofit agency that provides clerical services for traffic offenders in 25 counties, to help promote court automation.

They are the first such machines to be installed outside a courthouse in the state of California, said Margie Borjon-Miller, a systems manager for the Ventura court system. Similar machines in the Long Beach courthouse handle an average of 80 transactions a day.

As the public becomes accustomed to using the Auto Clerks, they should help unsnarl the foot traffic that frequently backs up in the Municipal Court traffic division, she said. Any relief from the winding lines that routinely stretch outside Room 118 at the courthouse complex would be welcome, Borjon-Miller said.