65: What Happens After a Citation? Inside Gwinnett’s Solicitor General’s Office

In the latest episode of Conversations with Ku, Solicitor General Lisamarie Bristol joins the conversation to clear up common misconceptions, explain the office's role, and share how it serves the community.

Commissioner Ku would love to hear from you or answer questions about District 2. Feel free to email him at Ben.Ku@GwinnettCounty.com and your question may be read on air. 

Transcript

0:01

Hello, everyone. I'm Gwinnett county district two Commissioner Ben Ku and you're listening to conversations with Ku. Welcome to episode 65 for August 2026. This month I'm glad to welcome Solicitor General Lisa Marie Bristol back to the show. Lisa Marie was elected Solicitor General in 2022, and since then she has brought a fresh perspective to the office, shifting its philosophy from punitive to truly restorative justice, where they look at the people who come through her office as the whole person, not just a case number. The Solicitor General's office has been focusing on trying to break the cycle of recidivism, I think that's worth talking if you think misdemeanors are minor, think again. The consequences can follow someone for years. Madam solicitor, it's great to have you on the show today.- Thank you so much, Commissioner. It's great to be back.- It's been a couple of years since we recorded our last conversation, and a lot has happened in the office since then, so we have a lot of ground to cover today. First, let's bring everyone up to speed in case they didn't catch our initial interview. Or they may be unfamiliar with what a solicitor General does. let's start there. Can you give listeners a quick overview of the office and what you do?- Perfect. Thank you so much. I would love to. So as your Solicitor General, I am responsible for prosecuting all misdemeanors, traffic offenses and county ordinance violations. that's everything from shoplifting cases, domestic violence cases, car accident cases and any county violations. Things when people's yards aren't well-kept or improper parking or businesses aren't doing what they're supposed to do. Those will come through my recorder's court as well.- Any of the code enforcement complaints?- Code enforcement complaints are big when a lot of our animal cases, different levels of animal cases. So we have animal cases that might be a code violation, but we also have some animal cases that rise to the level state penalty prosecution. So we have those in Recorder's Court as well as in state court. So misdemeanors are anything where the person can face up to one year in jail to and or a $1,000 fine plus surcharges. our county ordinance violations are up to six months in jail, and the fine can range from $100 to $1000.- Thank you. And for those that might be wondering, what is the difference between your office and the DA's office?- The district attorney has jurisdiction over the, well, everything. But they handle all the felonies. so that's anything where you can over a year in jail. they also handle everything in juvenile court. if somebody commits any kind of crime and they're under the age of 17, they go to juvenile court. they go to juvenile court. handles felonies and juvenile court and I handle everything else. So because of the size of Gwinnett County, we have separated those things out. and saw the misdemeanors, like I said. everything below comes to the Solicitor General's office. the felonies still stay with the district attorney.- Thank you. That's And that distinction between your office and the district attorney's office is an important one for residents to understand. So now let's talk about how people actually interact with your office. If someone has just received a citation or notice, what's the one thing they should do immediately?- Well, the best advice I can give is to write down. Mark down. Save your court date. if it's a citation, they'll have their first court date already on that citation when issued by the officer. And if not, I would highly recommend they make sure that the clerk's office is aware if they move, if their address changes, because notice will be mailed to their home. They have a court date, making sure that they know when their upcoming court date is, or they know what that court date is not to miss. It is really, really important. And updating the clerk's office responsible for sending out those notices is a really good way to make sure that they don't miss anything. A lot of times people will call my office to update us with their change of address, which is fine. We make sure we get the right paperwork to where it needs to but that really is the biggest thing because a lot of times a really simple case can be snowballed because they simply forget they move. It becomes a bench warrant or failure to appear with bigger consequences. So that's biggest thing in this day and age. We have a lot of moving parts. So taking note of that citation, taking a picture of writing it down, that's really helpful.- And where should residents go for accurate information about their case? I asked because I think a lot of people turn to social media or ask around informally, which can potentially lead to some bad advice.- Definitely will lead to bad advice, there are a few things they can go to our website. www.GwinnettSG.com We have a lot of resources on there, including like a flowchart of what happens when you have a case in state court or in Recorder's Court, and it walks you through those steps. We also have really good contact information on there, not just from my office, but relevant county office that they may need to contact as well. also have a contact us form there where they can just port in their question, and we make sure it gets to the right place. If they need to call my main office number, which is (770) 822-8300. They can do And that gets them to our state court front desk. They'll be directed accordingly. If their question resides in Recorder's Court, they have a citation or can be ordinance issue. Then call my main desk over there.(770) 619-6140. And we'll get them to the right people. We also have a general email box that several people check daily, which is just solicitor hyphen general at Gwinnett County. So sometimes people just send us an email. We make sure it gets to the right place, import it from there. That's awesome.- That makes it really easy. Now I want to give you some space to clear up any common misconceptions about your office things people get wrong or misunderstand, and what you do or how the process works. What do you wish more people understood? sometimes social media can get away from us and a lot of misinformation spread like wildfire before we can even know about it.- Well, I think the biggest thing that can be really hard, especially in this social media age, is I can't comment on pending cases in my office. also really, really cannot comment on cases that they think are coming to my office. Cases that we don't actually have that might still be with the law enforcement agency, or that is still kind of in limbo. It can be hard in this day and age, we're in an information overload type of society and people have lots of opinions, which is fine, but I can't ethically not comment on a case that is pending. I cannot comment on what I think about a case if it were to come to my office, because now I am commenting on something when I don't have all of the information, or I'm prejudging what I would do with something that I don't have the authority to speak to, and so that can cause confusion and it can cause problems on the back end. So sometimes just saying I have no comment or I cannot comment can seem dismissive, when in fact I'm governed by a whole bunch ethical canons and rules to make sure and rules of professional conduct and to also ensure that there is proper due process for the defendant. So yeah, that's probably one of the biggest things. My friends and family now know not to ask certain questions, but there are times when other people just don't and they don't necessarily do it out wanting to be mean or misleading. They're curious, which is natural. I have to say, can't comment on things that aren't in my office.- Same thing happens in our office. know, if we have a zoning matter or anything that's going to be before the board of commissioners, we can't comment or prejudge any of that before it actually happens. So I ask that our listeners give us grace when we say no comment or we don't make a comment, it's not because we don't want to.- It's often because legally we can't, which is really fair when you think about it, if you were the person receiving or asking to go through the process to hear the people in charge of making that decision say, well, this is what I'm planning to do without even giving you a fair shot. That's not fair to them. And so that's probably one of the biggest things that we end up having to debunk.- Totally understandable and relatable for my end. So let's talk about the alternatives to traditional prosecution. How do you decide whether accountability looks like prosecution or whether it looks like diversion, treatment, restitution or community service?- It's such a great question and so many layers to it, right? So one of the things that I vowed to do when I was first elected, and I've doubled down on since being reelected for a second term...- Congratulations, by the way.- Thank you very much! We really want to make sure that we are handling these cases and understand that these are cases that are people, not just files. And that means you have to look at the whole picture. And so whether or not a case needs to be prosecuted, whether or not it's appropriate for diversion, whether it needs to go to accountability court, at the core of that answer is always going to be community safety. It's always going to be what's in the best interest of our community and what helps Gwinnett continue to thrive. so accountability courts are they're not an alternative to prosecution. They are concurrent with prosecution, but they are for people who maybe need a little extra help, a little extra guidance and supervision to get the help that they need. It's a different form of prosecution. Effectively. is a form of prosecution. It's more of a team approach. You have, mental health, you have social workers, you have the judge involved, you have a defense attorney involved, you have support, you have supervision. And it's for people who know that they have a problem, know that they need help kicking that problem, also know they're going to need a little bit more guidance and support to do so. Our accountability courts, when somebody, for instance, has multiple DUIs driving under the influence cases, either past convictions or open cases. That is someone who likely needs more to stop drinking and driving. And it's more than just saying, okay, you're on probation, you're going to do some jail time. Don't do it again. It's showing up every for weekly group meetings. It is showing up and getting tested by your probation supervision officer. It is having more consistent touches with the system to ensure that you're staying on- It's less about being punitive and more about let's actually fix the root problem.- Exactly. I will tell you, accountability courts, which I've been involved almost my entire career in different counties as well. Accountability courts are designed for people to stumble. They're designed knowing that people are going to fail. they're going to mess up. They're going to have missteps. And it's not just, okay, you're out of the program, and it's not just, we're going to throw you in jail and forget about you. It's okay. How do we get you back on track? How do you get sanctioned? how do we address this misstep and keep you on this path? The The great thing about accountability courts is those who successfully complete their program are 77% less likely to recommit. So it's worth the energy. It's worth the time and effort put into putting people through those programs. We currently have two DUI courts running, and we have a veterans court program as well. We are working with the county to hopefully start our mental health court, run kind of adjacent to our mental health court, in Superior Court, to just really help people who need that extra guidance and that extra care to get along the way, and to hopefully not continue on this cycle of recidivism and to break that chain.- Sounds like there's a real measurable return on investment, because that's what this is. It's just us investing in people. So that way we are preventing...- Absolutely.- crimes, not just punishing them.- Correct. Preventing future crimes. If we can get someone who is a chronic drinking and driving problem to actually address the issue as to why they're drinking and driving as opposed to just punish them for a year. We don't want them coming back on our roads and continuing that bad behavior. So let's address the root cause, which accountability courts gives us the opportunity to do. It's kind of newer to have them in state court statewide. They started more so in Superior Court for more serious charges. But there's definitely a need. And I think we're doing great work here in Gwinnett with our state court accountability courts. We also have diversion, which you talked about. Diversion is an alternative to prosecution. It is for a low level or first time offenders who have committed nonviolent crimes, and they can be held accountable, but still get a chance to maintain a clean record. Diversion is a big deal because a lot of people what you said briefly in the beginning, when we think about convictions, we think about criminal history. We only think about felonies because that's what movies are made about, talks about, you know, misdemeanor convictions. Nobody makes movies about them. However, misdemeanor convictions have a huge impact on people's lives and their trajectory. So misdemeanor conviction could mean not having access to affordable housing, not qualifying for student loans, not being able to serve in the military, being denied certain employment opportunities. And more recently, I realized that certain misdemeanor convictions keep an elder person out of certain senior assisted living homes. So that's years down the road that it could still have a huge impact. So I think it's very important that we take all of these cases with care. And if there's someone who's eligible for diversion, there's somebody who's eligible to have an opportunity to keep a clean record. We're definitely going to work with them and try and make sure that happens.- It's about making sure bad situation isn't made significantly worse.- Correct. Because if somebody makes a mistake a nonviolent mistake and it's their first time low level offender type of person, and they get a conviction that then renders them unable to do college or get certain jobs, or we're just kind of keeping them in a situation that could make it worse and just escalate it later So our diversion program is something that's really important to me. And last year, we were able to funnel about 12% of the overall caseload through our diversion program.- Fantastic. I also want to make sure we talk about something significant that launched after you were last on the show In April 2025, your office launched a Special Victims unit, SVU. Right? For anyone who hasn't heard about this yet. What is it and how has it been going since?- So our Special Victims Unit was launched to really address our most vulnerable cases. So high level domestic violence cases are vehicular homicide, misdemeanor sex crime cases, and cases that sometimes need extra attention, extra training to deal with, and what the launch of SVU has done for us has shown us, hey, there are some areas that we need additional training on. I was able to bring in a director of Training and development who works not just with my attorneys and not just with my investigators, but we're also building partnerships with law enforcement throughout the community and the metro area to work on making sure that we are all well trained and able to handle these cases with the care that they deserve. And so it's been going great, bringing in a director of training and development who is able to focus the needs of the office and focus the deficits that we may have in the areas that we need to strengthen. Having someone dedicated to that curriculum has been amazing, and so we're definitely excited to be moving in this direction. I know when people think about Special Victims Unit, they think again, felonies. They think about law and order. They think about those kind of big, larger cases. The need for SVU in state court also stems from the fact that sometimes we have really sensitive matters, and we have cases where we have vulnerable victims, whether it's a young person in a a misdemeanor sex crimes case, which is Romeo and Juliet cases. So cases of sexual contact between teenagers, which could be very sensitive. Those are matters that just need a little extra finesse to deal Along with sometimes we have repeat domestic violence offense cases or someone who's particularly vulnerable. We may have an older person who's vulnerable, or it might be the special relationship between the people, a teacher and student, or if it's a parent child discipline case, or if it is an elder person who's being in a situation where they're particularly sensitive or vulnerable. So our Special Victims Unit is designed to have people who can dig a little deeper, spend a little bit more time on those cases and preparing and being ready to handle sometimes the extra weight that it comes along with those types of cases.- It sounds like. Your office has been really busy looking at everything your office has done with the Special Victims Unit, expanded diversion and the accountability courts. What does that mean in practical terms for the people of Gwinnett?- Well, for starters, we're growing. The legislature has put in for us to have an eighth state court judge. So we are going to be growing so we have more judges available. Therefore, my staff will be growing. So we're there to serve and assist with the growing caseload. means that we are really trying our best to have our ear to the ground and what the needs of our community is. We are involved not just in the courthouse, but very much so outside of the courthouse and trying to be proactive and not only reactive. And that comes across in ways like having, education drives, going out to the high schools, going out to community fairs and being proactive and giving people information and resources and ways to connect with us before they have a case. And hopefully they won't get a case. But those are things that we are trying to do. We're trying to really figure out what are the needs of our community, and how can we try and meet them before they get completely embroiled in criminal justice system. so that definitely kept us busy. We're busy both in the courtrooms and in the office as well as in the community. But honestly, being out and involved with the community is some of the most rewarding work that we do.- Well, thank you for taking the time be here on this podcast.- Thank you for the invitation. Always a pleasure.- And before we go, where can residents go to learn more or reach out to your office if needed?- They can always go to GwinnettSG.com It's a fully comprehensive website. It can be translated to any language that they need, and I hope it has all the information that they need from including some PSA videos and frequently asked questions with some answers, along with some flowcharts about what to expect. If you have a case, or if you're a victim need some resources. So that is really a great place to start. And as always, they can always reach directly out to my office.- Fantastic. So I take it your website was recently updated to be the Ada compliance?-It is, it is. And all the languages. all of the things. And we constantly update it to make sure that we are accessible to the public.- Lisamarie. This has been such a great conversation. Thank you so much for coming back on the podcast.- Thank you so much, Ben. It's always a pleasure to chat with you.- You make a complex subject really accessible and clear. You have that motherly,[Both Laugh] wise parental tact.- I try to.- So I'd like to thank our wonderful staff for helping to write, edit, produce and promote this podcast. To our listeners. Thank you for joining us. If there's a topic you'd like me to cover or someone you'd like me to interview, I'd love to hear from you can email me at Ben at Gwinnett County that's been at Gwinnett County for all your district Thanks again for listening. And as always, stay vibrantly connected and we'll talk to you soon.