PEORIA, Ill. — Groups larger than 10 are discouraged to gather at this time, and Peoria County State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos said courts are adapting.
“On any give day, there could be up to 100 people in those courtrooms, in a small packed courtroom. Obviously, in today’s society that just can’t occur,” Hoos said.
Courts are expanding the number of cases that people can pay tickets online.
“We feel that if you can spend a few minutes on your computer and resolve your traffic matter, that’s a lot better than coming to the courthouse and spending a few hours,” Hoos said.
The days of people requesting time off work to come to a courthouse to pay a traffic ticket will hopefully be gone, according to Hoos.
“We think that will greatly reduce the number of individuals that even have to come into the courtroom,” Hoos said.
The idea to move paying certain tickets online has been Hoos’ plan for some time before the coronavirus pandemic.
“One of my goals that I had in place was to get an online, sort of a deferred, program,” Hoos said. “One where people that were charged with minor offenses could do a few things, submit that to us, and then not ever have to come to court.”
Another goal was to move payments for traffic tickets online.
“Because frankly, that happens to everybody. You get in a fender bender, you have to take a half day off of work, go sit in a courtroom with 50 other strangers for three hours,” Hoos said. “I want to get that where they can do that online and never have to come to court.”
