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Judge Gary Helm urges council to back rescinding Senate Bill 5, says municipal courts have lost enforcement tools
Summary
Judge Gary Helm told the Independence City Council that Senate Bill 5 has weakened municipal-court enforcement, lowered appearance rates and increased administrative work; a resolution supporting rescission was discussed but no vote was recorded.
Judge Gary Helm told the Independence City Council that Senate Bill 5 has “been a total disaster for municipal courts” since it went into effect about eight and a half years ago and asked the council to support a resolution urging the state legislature to rescind the law.
Helm, who said he has served as a municipal judge for 32 years, told council members that courts no longer can suspend drivers’ licenses for failures to appear or otherwise apply penalties that previously encouraged people to show up for hearings. “There’s no punishment for not showing up for court anymore,” he said, and that…
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