Municipal Court is Making Changes

Tyler Municipal Court is making changes. Changes that equate to lower revenue. “What we are focusing on now, instead of the monetary portion of it, is on education,” said Court Administrator Nicole Johnson. “Letting our residents know we want them to be compliant with the law while handling our court business as well.”

The Municipal Court has been taking the measures to provide more education and more presentations to let people know what they do and how they function as a court.

“Coming into our court is not always a bad thing,” said Johnson.

Rachel Baker, a student in the Financial Workshop provided by the Municipal Court gave the City the following testimonial. “Like most people that come through the court, I was a mom with two kids and two household incomes, but it is still really hard to make ends meet. The court gave me the option of attending the Financial class to pay part of my ticket. I was not aware at the time you could do this, but they gave me the opportunity, so I came. They gave us tools to lead to better financial stability.”

As we saw from the Financial Workshop, there’s other things and opportunities that may come out of appearing in the municipal court. They want people to know, while they are handling court business, they may have other avenues or other connections within our community that can assist them as well personally.

Other options to avoid paying tickets include keep it off the driving record, defer, an appointment to talk to the judge to discuss a lower payment plan or community service.