I recently conducted a traffic ticket hearing and the person in front of me looked quite uncomfortable. In an attempt to make him feel more comfortable, I told him, “at least you are not at the dentist.”

To the pleasure of many dentists, I am sure, he replied, “I would rather be at the dentist.”

Many people feel that way about the justice system in general. Much of this feeling has to do with our customers not understanding exactly what our product is and how it is delivered.

I am going to attempt to remove some mystery and shed some light on some essential principles that will help us better understand the benefits and limitations of our system of justice.

Our local court handles about 20,000-plus misdemeanor and traffic cases right here in Federal Way. Superior Court handles the more serious felonies occurring in Federal Way at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.

I spoke to a high school class and one of the students said, “You don’t handle very important cases, do you?” My response was that actually, we do handle the most important cases. They may not be newsworthy, but they are extremely important to the health and welfare of our city.

I explained that our cases are important to the people affected by domestic violence, to the people affected by theft, and to the people affected by driving under the influence and other crimes occurring right here in our community. Traffic safety in our community is also extremely important to the drivers and pedestrians using our roads. These crimes and infractions touch us all, even if we do not commit them or become a victim of them.

The purpose of our court is to be on the front line of trying to influence the defendants before us to make better choices and to reduce the chance that they will graduate to more serious crimes. We can also contribute in a small way to driver education to help avoid a few accidents here and there.

Yes, indeed, our cases are important, extremely important. Our court is the centerpiece of justice in our community. It is truly the people’s court.

I want to next share a couple of the court’s goals for the upcoming year. First, our goal will be to streamline how we do our work to further bring down the cost of running the court.

Second, we will think outside the box in developing methods to help save money for taxpayers in the pursuit and use of alternative sentencing models. The primary goal will be accountability of convicted defendants, but with better use of electronic home detention, community service and day reporting in lieu of jail. The reason for this is that the cost of alternative sentencing methods is about 15-20 percent of the cost of jail, and in some cases, can actually be more effective than jail. Sometimes jail is the only answer for some defendants, but it is never the only answer for all defendants.

A future goal will be to coordinate the implementation of a work crew or a similar program that will put people to work beautifying our community while being held accountable. We will keep you posted as we push for such a program to become a reality for this community in the future.

Broadening the choices we have at the time of sentencing and saving the taxpayers money is worth the effort. The resultant savings from the use of alternative sentencing models will help in addressing the projected deficit while still making our community a healthier and better place to live. We can accomplish this if we work together with a common goal and vision.

On behalf of Judge Rebecca Robertson, the court staff, and all those who are part of your very own system of justice, it is an honor and a privilege to serve the people of Federal Way.

Onward and upward.

Judge David Larson of the Federal Way Municipal Court: David.Larson@cityoffederalway.com