Traffic violations via mail from February 2019

CITIZENS may begin receiving tickets for traffic violations by mail from about February, says Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.

He was speaking at yesterday’s post-Cabinet media conference held at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's. Al-Rawi said Government already proclaimed, as of December 1, the Criminal Division and Traffic Division Courts Act which gives the Chief Justice the opportunity to create specialist courts. Al-Rawi said, with the traffic court when the violation side is proclaimed, violations will be created instead of offences, and this will result in roughly 102,000 cases per year going into violations.

"Those violations come to you in the mail. The system for that it will be as we estimate up and around February next year. So in or around February next year you are going to pull out one hundred and something thousand cases from 140,000 cases therefore leaving magistrates to do magistrates' work. If you want to come to court for a violation you have to tell the court 'I want to come to court' and then you go through a certain process there."

He said in 2019 there will be a radical shift particularly because the Electronic Transactions for Court Payment (CourtPay) Bill has been passed where citizens will be allowed to do it all online.