EDITORIAL : ERROR IN JUDGMENT; COURT FIRED THE WRONG PERSON FOR EXPOSING LOOPHOLE IN INSURANCE LAW.

WHEN judges in Glendale Municipal Court fired traffic commissioner Dona Bracke, it was a classic case of killing the messenger for exposing a giant loophole in state law.

Bracke's offense was doing more than her job, said her bosses.

When drivers who were ticketed for failing to carry proof of insurance turned up in her courtroom, she ordered bailiffs to call insurance companies and verify that the insurance cards were valid.

The mandatory insurance bill, which passed the Legislature in 1996, has dramatically increased the caseloads in municipal courts throughout the state.

But it has also dramatically reduced the number of uninsured drivers involved in crashes statewide, which in turn has helped lower insurance premiums for drivers.

In 1996, before the law took effect, nearly a quarter of all drivers involved in crashes in California had no insurance. In Los Angeles County, the uninsured motorists accounted for 41 percent of all accidents a year earlier.

But what's the good of a law when word gets out that it's beatable in court?

And that's exactly what's happening.

As Bracke discovered, the Legislature failed to include insurance-verification procedures in the mandatory insurance law.

That means when 7,000 to 9,000 people annually show up in traffic court in Los Angeles County now to fight the $1,325 fine for driving without proof of insurance, they can show any fake document they please and get away with it.

Bracke's zeal to uphold the intent of the law riled lawyers, who whined to Bracke's bosses about her tactics of verifying information. The judges who oversaw the Glendale Municipal Court in turn fired Bracke.

Now it's time for legislators to fine-tune the law.

The lawmakers must squash the growing scam of counterfeiting insurance cards by making it a crime to forge them. It is already a misdemeanor to give false information to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

And while they're at it, they must allow procedures for courts and traffic commissioners, just trying to protect the public, to check information coming into court.

Otherwise, what's the point?

The law was designed to protect good drivers. But the way it's written, it's just a full-employment measure for attorneys.

And Dona Bracke deserves a better fate than being fired for exposing a serious defect in a law intended to protect people.